Tragic Hawk Deaths Stir My Neighborhood

 

My bike ride a few days ago became a rescue effort when not far from my house I spotted this hawk on the ground. It was next to the cart path along the No. 14 fairway at the Coosaw Creek Country Club where we live. 

I stopped my bike to look at the bird that just six feet away or so. It didn’t fly away, instead, it opened its wings slightly. This is a juvenile hawk so I thought it was just disoriented possibly.  Or, more seriously, it was injured or sick. 

After taking a few photos with my phone I rode home and told Alesia about the situation. after giving her location details she rode her bike and found the poor hawk now laying on its side. She took this picture. 

Aware of the fine Birds of Prey facility (full name: The Avian Conservation Center and Center for Birds of Prey) in our area (it is located in Awandaw), I found the phone number online (pictured right) to report injured and suspicious birds. I left a message and soon received a call back from Barbara Holmes. 

She gave instructions on how to safely capture and box the bird. 

Alesia and I discussed what to do. I was hesitant to do anything right away, telling her I’d check on the hawk first thing in the morning. If it was still there and alive, then I would try to capture it. 

But Alesia felt immediate action was needed and she was, as usual, right. While she was still with the bird and her bike, I drove our car near the site, tossed a towel over the hawk and we carefully put it in this cat cage (pictured left). 

Barbara from Birds of Prey, who fortunately lives not far from us, came to our house after 9 p.m. She moved the bird to her box. She said someone from Birds of Prey would take it to Awandaw in the morning for medical treatment. 

But in the morning she messaged me that the hawk didn’t make it through the night. So sad! 

This would not be the end of the story. The next morning a second sick bird was found on the ground, also along the No. 14 golf course fairway. This by a man who lives there. This bird was a Red-tailed Hawk. The one we found was a Red-shouldered Hawk. So that ruled out the birds being from the same family. 

Our neighbor also reported his find to the Birds of Prey hotline (the night before I had posted the information and my sick bird photos on our neighborhood Facebook site, which is very popular among residents). 

The neighbor drove the bird himself to the Birds of Prey facility. Kudos to him for doing that! 

But sadly this bird also died. So what killed two beautiful raptors in close proximity to each other? I learned from Barbara yesterday that neither bird showed signs of wounds or exterior injury. Likely then it was poison that may have been transmitted via some critter like a squirrel, lizard or some rodent that they caught and ate. 

This lead me to call the club general manager to let him know about these avian deaths. And later I posted this message on the Coosaw Facebook site. 

If there is more to the story, I will add it.  On my blog I have always featured birds as the beautiful creatures they are. But their lives are not easy by any means and things like this happen. Bringing awareness to what happened may prevent future tragedies.