Red Tailed Hawk Returns to the Wild
By Carmel de Bertaut
On Feb. 23, 2002, an adult female Red-tailed hawk was brought into WCSV by a concerned citizen who had been able to just pick her up without her up without much of a fight. Upon initial exam a sticky substance that felt like tree resin was found on her beak and feet; however, our greatest concern was the degree of emaciation we found. A female Red Tail can weigh up to 1200 grams; the bird we were holding weighed only 779 grams. That meant she had lost approximately 40% of her body weight. At a 50% loss, animals cannot be saved due to damage done to internal organs, we clearly were going to have a battle on our hands but it was one we were willing to fight. She was given only fluids her first 24 hours and than started on an emaciation protocol which would last several weeks.
On day 2 of her stay we found out that she was indeed covered in tree resin, she had cast in the early hours of Feb. 24 and when examined her casting consisted of bark and dry leaves. Something had brought this bird down and by the time she had regained her flight she was too weak to do so. We will never know what caused the grounding. I suspect she may have been hit by a car and sustained a head injury.
We also found at this time that she had a heavy dose of Coccidia, an internal parasite. Due to her weakened condition and the stress of captivity it took almost 2 months and several different medications to get her over the infection.
She was gaining weight steadily, which was perfect, too fast might have killed her, and she was becoming physically strong again and wanted to fight our every interaction with her. It was time to get her outside so on March 24th she was put into an outdoor enclosure. Since WCSV does not have a flight cage big enough for Red-tails when it came time to flight her we transferred her to a Facility in Morgan Hill. There she would stay until release. We were set to release her May 27th but she started to molt at that time and had to be held for another month.
On June 28th her big day arrived. This was a day that I hoped would come but at the very beginning of her rehabilitation found it hard to believe would happen. She was picked up from Morgan Hill and then taken to her release site on Mount Hamilton where she had been found. She proved how ready to go she was when we barely had the door to her carrier open and she was out of it, flying straight into a tree and out of sight. It was very rewarding to watch her take her flight back home.
I would like to thank all her caregivers, both hands-on and those who gave advice. I would also like to extend thanks to WERC in Morgan Hill and most of all to John Gonsalves who brought her to us.
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