Meet Hawkeye

I don't always make home visits, but when I do,  I make my presence known!!"

Recently, on my evening walks around the ranch with my dog Djinni, I've noticed a bird of prey of some sort seeming to trail behind us.  I have assumed it's because we probably scare up some variety of vermin that makes for easy hunting (mice, weasels, skunks, opossums, raccoons, snakes, mule deer, white tail deer, lots of other birds, etc).  I especially love the "skree" call that he makes.

I came back from hiking yesterday and Kathmandu (my cat) was sitting on the deck. He must have been out when I left. Imagine my surprise when I saw this giant bird of prey sitting on the railing of the deck. I thought he must be after the cat and hurried to get Kathman inside. But the bird didn't move!!

He jumped down on the ground, and I thought about what to do. I figured he'd just swooped in and tried for the cat, but maybe hit the deck instead and was stunned. I approached him very slowly to see if he was injured and was surprised at how close he let me get. Finally, I reached out to him so I could move him to the shade. He was panting, and had some blood stains on his chest feathers along with remnants of a meal on his beak, so I figured he'd eaten. He kept letting me get close so I picked him up (he was very light) and moved him to the shade. He flapped his wings a few times and looked like all of his body was functional, so I suspect he wasn't injured. He hung around for a while, and I'd occasionally approach him...at one point he walked out onto my arm. (In hindsight I should have been wearing sleeves, or gloves.)

I made a few calls and was lucky - on a weekend - to be put in touch with Susan Ahalt.  She is a licensed raptor rehabilitation expert in Cody and she gave me lots of good info. (Her blog, Ironside Bird Rescue, has great images and stories about her efforts.)  Besides lots of good information, I learned he is a redtailed hawk.  She mentioned two other potential options that might result in his unusual behavior - that he could be starving (since he was light) or even poisoned.  We sort of ruled out poisoning.  Since he'd just eaten and was otherwise fully functional (and beautiful), I feel hopeful that he was just stunned. His craw seemed full and he had meat on his beak. I would hope that with all the field mice, weasels, muskrat, other birds, coons and skunks and what-not that it'd be easy enough for him to be able to hunt.

If he seems to hang around as though he is looking for food, I have instructions on capturing him (it's easier than you'd think!) and transporting him to Cody.  I am hoping that he is happy and healthy and just honored me with a little introduction and visit.  I saw a young red-tail flying near the cliffs across the creek this afternoon, and for now will choose to believe that was my new friend, "Hawkeye".