This morning,while taking my kids to school,I saw our resident Red Hawk,[commonly known here as a chicken hawk],down on the ground,puffed up and shivering.We backed up to look at him, he has been living in our area for the last several months,and I knew he was hurt.We have enjoyed his majesty,his strenght and his beauty, daily, and had named him Bob,just yesterday my son told me how he had seen Bob swoop down after prey,and marveled at his swiftness and agility. After dropping my kids off,I came home and called a friend who works for the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries,and explained the situation,and he told me how to safely capture him,[birds of prey can be very dangerous],and gave me a phone number for a Wildlife Rehab.Org.Although I am well skilled with parrots,I knew raptors were well beyond my scope of knowledge, and knew I needed to get Bob to someone who knew how to handle and help him.Hawks are a protected species,so I was sure they would help him.I didn't know what was wrong with him,and didn't examine him,but was proud of myself for capturing him with a large,thick quilt,and neither of us getting hurt.I put him in a large,dark box,and took him to the wildlife vet.I insisted on staying while the vet examined him,and Bob gave no trouble,but looked at me with his gorgeous amber eyes,while the vet checked him out.The vet told me his leg was shattered at the hip joint,and could not be repaired adequately,that if he survived,he would always be a crippled bird and could never be returned to the wild.He said that unfortunately,Red Tailed Hawks were quite common,and that the wildlife people would probably have him destroyed,rather than keep a handicapped bird.It was a shame,he said,because he was a beautiful young bird.I said "If you can fix him,I'll take him and give him a home and feed him."He said it would be very difficult,permits required and all,and I could tell that the vet didn't think this was a possibility.He was very kind,saying that I did the right thing,bringing him in and all,because I saved him from freezing,[its in the low 30's here now],and from starving.But I know they will destroy this beautiful bird.I asked what he thought had happened to him and he said he was probably shot. As I was leaving,I turned and said"He has a name you know,it's Bob."

thats really sad.......we have a resident falcon here in silverlake, he lives in a nest above angry sams house. she has been there for 3+ years, every year we see her offspring, teaching them to fly and what not. She is the most beautiful bird i have ever seen in the "wild"....so dramatic when they let out their squawk, plus it's fun to watch all the smaller birds scatter when she leaves her nest....

I,m so sorry Czarina

We have a resident Red Tail here too--he sits on the telephone poles. They even named a beer after him. (Red Tail Ale, anyone?) It is sad. Sometimes I think fish and game would shoot their own mother is she had four legs.

Exactly. I saw a squirrel get run over today. Didn't killit but obviously broke its spine as it dragged itself off the road. I saw a man walking toward it in the rear view, but I don't know if he helped it or put it out of its misery. I had to do that with aporcupine someone hit and left in the road once. Fortunatly, I still had my steel snow shovel in the car, so I whacked it on the head really hard until it stopped moving, then scooped it up and depostied him off the road. I hate roadkill.

Me too. But s'not so bad in a good wine sauce.

ROFLMAO.......R.C.....you slay me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh...y'all jest, but I had a friend who used to get calls from the highway department. He worked in a paleoarcheology lab, and they collected the skeletons of roadkill to have a baseline to compare to bones found at digs. When it was a fresh deer, my friend would cut of the best meat for himself before bringing the carcass to the lab.

Patrick,thats interesting about where your resident falcon resides,"above angry Sams house". Bob lived in the telephone wires in front of "Crazy Boy's" house.Maybe they like eccentric neighbors. Like a big dummy, I went to work last night with red,puffy eyes.I'm so angry with the fish and wildlife people,they have been trying to call me,[I guess to follow up],but I haven't answered, I'm afraid I'll lose it yelling at them "YOU WERE SUSPOSED TO HELP". This will sound crazy,but this wild bird was very much a part of our family.We discussed Bob quite frequently. If Bob wasn't sitting on his telephone pole, one of us would say, "Oh,Bob must have gone to town for lunch", or" Bob must have gone over to the Pelerins to find something to munch on","He's probably out picking up snacks",or,"I hope that little Brown girl isn't out playing in her yard,I think Bob's had his eye on her lately." So, you see,Bob lived vicariously through all of us, and had wonderful adventures, that we'd embelish,each of us trying to outdo the previous adventure.So the empty spot on the high-wire has left a big void in all of our hearts. When my family got home yesterday the first question each of them asked was "How's Bob?" My husband couldn't believe it was Bob,he said "but I saw him flying when I left for work at 6:30am, and you found him at 8:00 am , who would have come out here and shot him in that short a period of time?" So I pointed out that he was a bird,and had probably been out "getting breakfast" when he was shot,and flew back home after being injured. Obviously,those damn wildlife people didn't know what a special bird Bob was,or they would have taken much better care of him.

The problem with trying to build up a zooarchaeological comparative collection is all in rendering the carcasses down to bones. You need a large cauldron and understanding neighbors, or you need to be firends with someone who has a very big back yard. I boiled down a chicken once for a biology class assignment. PHew!

czarina / fyi / Wild Canid Survival & Research Center/ pob 760 / MO 63025 / 314.938.5900 / can put you in touch with the raptor rehab people / called Wild Bird Sanctuary locally. Worldwide. May be too late for Bob, sorry. You did what you thought was best.