He ran an errand for me. Before I knew it, he was driving his car really slowly in the back yard. He called me out and had a large white covered box in his hand, "Guess what I have", he said? I looked at the box and said "more chickens"? "no" a" A baby turkey" "No" "Did you bring home a rabbit"?? (my brother has rabbits) "No" he said. Finally, I said ..." Is it something alive"??? "Yes" he said. So I carefully opened the box. sitting in the box was a baby bird. All round and fuzzy a little bigger than a baseball. It was obviously very hungry. I ground up a little chicken feed and hubby put a little water in with it. I knew it was too little to survive w/o it's mom. And since we didn't know if it was a meat eater or a seed eater I suggested calling a local zoo or vet. The vet said they could not take in a wild bird by law but they gave us a number of a rescue. It was about 30+ miles away and we were in a big storm. We got the lady from the foothill animal rescue told her the situation and as divine intervention would have it, she was in her car returning to SC and was several exits away from our house, We met her 10 minutes later in a fast food place a few feet off the highway. She looked at the bird and said, it was definitely a baby hawk. If we had kept it, it would have died. He saw 2 ladies trying to catch the bird in the street so it wouldn't get run over. He stopped and helped them coax it into the box. He thought we could keep it in the chicken coop. I told him no. The grown up chickens would have killed it in minutes. (a role reversal. in 6 months the hawk would have gladly killed the chickens!) So LITTLE ABNER (It was found on Abner Creek Rd) is now in the hands of an experienced wild animal rescue group. All of this beginning to finale within an hour. I would say one of life's little miracles!
Nice story. I wonder what I would have done with a baby hawk??? Around here, we aren't that organized (vets, rescue, etc). Or if we are, I am totally unaware of this!
Well done your OH for rescuing the baby bird. If it hadn't been for him then I doubt it would have made it. So glad you found someone who could take care of it until it's ready to be returned to the wild. :-D
DMJ, you and your husband deserve medals! Many folks wouldn't have gone to the trouble you went to. That is one fortunate little hawk. On behalf of bird lovers, thank you!
What a nice story. I am guessing that the person that took it away will ensure tht the hawk is raised properly. Good for your man, that he was kind enough to stop and help save it.