crunchy bits

Holy cow — we had the opportunity of a lifetime on Saturday! We were heading to see family in New Jersey for Memorial Day weekend when the phone rang. My neighbor was on the other end telling us her son had found a baby red-tailed hawk on a trail in their woods. It was lying on the ground with its wings spread and tongue out, seemingly dehydrated. He scooped it up in his sweatshirt and brought it to her. They gave it water and worms (!) and it perked back up. Definitely not a fan of worms tho, and it’s very easy for them to aspirate water (they get most of their moisture from their food — evidently mice are nice n juicy!), so she was hoping to find someone to take over so she wouldn’t have to head to the store for mice to chop.

I brought her a list I’d printed from the DEP website of CT wildlife rehabilitators trained to handle protected birds, as well as the number for the Audubon society in Glastonbury. The rehabilitator came over within  minutes of her call, and that’s all I know of that little hawk baby’s story. Despite knowing that it’s really important for the birds not to imprint with humans, I figured that since he had been held all day already it wouldn’t hurt for my kids to pose for a picture with this gorgeous fuzzy feathered friend. Boy are those talons strong and sharp!

We had been to a presentation by Wind Over Wings recently, as well as several more birds of prey talks in the last few years, and even the kids felt a little guilty holding him since not handling baby raptors had been such a major message of the talk. One of their hawks is with them because a woman found him in the woods and brought him home. After cuddling him plenty during his stay with her, he had imprinted with humans, so they bring him with them to educate the public about these beautiful animals and how important it is to call someone trained to care for them in a way that enables them to return to the wild.

Take a look at Wind Over Wings advice about how to help injured or possibly abandoned/orphaned wildlife that crosses your path. Definitely good info to know before you run into another wild animal (not just birds) in need of assistance.

We’ve also been enjoying the videos of a family of red-tailed hawks in Massachusetts — love the commentary, miss the accent from our days  in the Boston area. Don’t miss the previous posts — you can find them in “related content” in the sidebar. Some have videos, some just pics, but you can watch the chicks grow up! They’ve just started to fledge!

Fly, little birdie, fly!