Dramatic Hawk Rescue Takes Place on Canopus Hill
by Pete Salmansohn

When a hungry hawk chases a frantic squirrel up and around a tree, anything can happen. And apparently the squirrel got away recently when a phone call came in to Constitution Marsh that a red-tailed hawk was stuck in a sugar maple on Canopus Hill Road. Audubon staff members Rich Anderson and Eric Lind threw a ladder, ropes, climbing gear and other rescue equipment into a truck and drove off to see what, if anything, they could do. "When we got to the tree," says Eric, "we could not believe how bad off this bird was. It was dangling upside down from one leg which was stuck in a crack in the trunk, right below a big hole. It was flapping its wings helplessly, twirling around and around. There was blood dripping down the bark. This bird was obviously going to die very soon if we couldn’t figure out some way to help it."

Rich Anderson soon climbed to the very top of an extension ladder they had roped in against the tree trunk and surveyed the difficult situation just a few feet below the agitated and desperate bird. With his hands hopefully protected from the hawk’s sharp claws in leather gloves, he reached up to try and secure it. The bird’s good talon grabbed for Rich and went right into the glove. Then the hawk tried to bite Rich as well, but missed. Rich took a large pillowcase and gingerly lifted it over the bird’s head and most of its body, and it calmed down immediately. It was then relatively easy for Rich to slip the foot that had lodged down into the long crack out to safety, and then to descend with the entire bird inside the cotton sack.

By this time wildlife rehabilitator Suzie Gilbert had arrived with Garrison Fire Chief Joseph Surace. Suzie gently transferred the very disoriented and stressed hawk into a large cage she had in her car, and drove back to her house where she has a clinic and aviary. "I gave him an exam to see what we were dealing with," says Suzie, " and it didn’t seem the leg was broken but I just couldn’t believe it. The skin was badly abraded and really bloody." Just to make sure the hawk’s injured leg wasn’t broken Suzie took the bird to the Croton Animal Hospital.

When the x-rays of the bird were developed the bone structure was okay, but a greater mystery suddenly announced itself. Three small lead pellets were lodged in the bird’s body – two in the upper part of the injured leg and one in the forehead. "We were outraged," says Suzie, " that someone had shot at this beautiful bird." The injury was old, however, and bird’s body had secreted fluid to wall off the pellets from the rest of the tissue.

Three stitches were put in the hawk’s leg and a bandage was applied. " I took the bird home," says Suzie, " and it was doing okay, but I noticed one foot was warm and the other was cold so I attempted to massage that foot in order to get the circulation going. I had to be very careful, obviously, and he let me do it for a few days, but then he resisted."

Three weeks later the hawk was continuing to slowly improve but it had no safe place to fly around and exercise its wings. "I took him to Green Chimneys in Brewster where they have a huge flight cage," says Suzie. "When I left, he was flying around. What a fabulous sight that was!"

The hawk may stay at Green Chimneys through the winter because of the difficulty these birds of prey have in finding food during the next few months. When he’s ready to be released in the wild, however, Suzie will bring him back to Canopus Hill, open the cage, and let him return to his proper surroundings.