By Evie Uretsky of Ohio
When I lived in Northern Alberta, I had the unfortunate luck of striking a Swansons Hawk with the upper part of the windshield of my truck. I watched in utter horror as the bird hit the gravel road and rolled several times. I immediately stopped my truck and backed up to check on the bird.
When I got close to the bird, I noticed she was still alive, so I opened up the back of my truck and got out a box large enough to put her in, but not big enough for her to move around in to hurt herself further. She allowed me to gently fold her wings into her side and pick her up and place her into the box. The next thing I did was rush home with her and brought her into the house and closed the door to the room so she wouldn’t be bothered by my cats.
She Ate & Drank Her Fill
I then picked up the phone and called the wildlife rehab center in Edmonton and they instructed me to call one of the vet offices in Edmonton on Monday. Since this happened late on Friday and I was not able to make it into the city by the time the office closed, they instructed me as to what she could eat over the weekend. I cut up some pieces of farm fresh chicken breast meat and she took it readily from me without showing any signs of fear or aggression, almost like she knew I was only trying to help her. I then used a water bottle (the type used for biking) and slowly dripped water along the side of her beak and she drank her fill.
That Monday I took her to the vet where they were able to do x-rays and told me that she had a slight fracture to her pelvis area and would require 6-8 weeks of strict cage rest. Once she was healed up, they were going to release her back into the wild.
From Care2
