Dear Sis, I know of your love of birds so I must relay this story to you. As you know I am a huge reptile guy which in turn makes me interested in birds considering the relationship between the two, especially Raptors! We have a resident population of Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter Cooperii) in this area and being we have tons of old growth trees in our neighborhood it is a perfect hunting ground for them (They feed largely on other birds, Sparrows, Wrens, Starlings, Robins, Etc....) We have been watching a breeding pair hunt in the trees around our house for the last few months and have been very excited to watch their incredible maneuverability and prowess as aerial hunters!
They are phenomenal!
Last night I walked out the front door to go to the store and saw the male, the smaller of the two in a dead spiral towards the ground and I hollered out to Sherri "Honey, hurry the male hawk has caught something mid-air" It turned out that he was in fact injured by something and landed in the middle of the street, unable to get off the ground, by what, I have no Idea. I ran over to him and he just looked at me and started to scream at me in fear. I carefully picked him up confining his wings, talons and avoiding his beak and carried him to the house. We lined a box with an old towel and sealed him inside and punched air holes in all four sides for him to breath (He was not happy, but did not attempt to bite me, much to my surprise) I immediately called the Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center who turned out to be closed, but their mail box said "put the injured wild animal in a cardboard box, do not attempt to feed it or give it water and get it to us a.s.a.p.!!!!!!"
First thing this morning I drove him out there and the wonderful volunteer (Renee) said it appears to have an injury to his shoulder and they would treat him for two weeks to see if they can save him. I will keep you posted as to his progress/developments. Meanwhile his mate perches in the trees around our house calling out for him and it is very heartbreaking to listen to. Some birds are monogamous and mate for life, I don't know if Cooper's Hawks are one of them but it is quite obvious that she wants him to come home, I can hear her calling out to him as I write this e-mail and I feel so bad! Maybe they can heal him and they can be reunited soon? I certainly hope so! I will keep you posted!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Cooper's Hawk
Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia
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