Showing posts with label WINORR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WINORR. Show all posts
Thursday, January 05, 2017
Thelonius Hawk
Winter is hawk rescue season in NYC as many of the first year birds get into trouble. Whether its starvation, parasites or secondary poisoning, hawk rehabbers are admitting about 1 hawk a day from around the 5 boros. This guy was trapped in Thelonius Monk Circle on West End and 63rd St. It has an injury to its right wing and could barely fly--possibly from chasing prey--and rat bites on its feet. The Park there is heavily infested with rats and many hawks die due to secondary poisoning--in other words injesting a poisoned rat. Rather than controlling rats by restricting their food sources or using other methods such as live traps and CO2, the City has gone all in with poison, thus condemning many birds of prey to agonizing deaths. If you see a sick or injured hawk, please contact the Audubon Society who will dispatch a wildlife rescue voluteer. The animal was brought to Animal Medical Center on 62nd and York for evaluation and will be rehabbed by WINORR. All of these organizations are non-profit so please feel free to donate to them...it will go to a great cause! Thanks to Fabian the doorman for the pix!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Double Rescue
Had a bit of a crazy day with raptors in need of rescue. First off was report of a bird collision on Lexington Ave. and 58th St. Turns out a juvy redtailed hawk had collided with the glass exterior of the Bloomberg Building
and was sitting dazed on a 6th floor terrace. I arrived just to see the bird compose itself and fly off towards 59th st. I was able to track the bird and gained entry to the exposed staircase it had perched, 1 block away.
Carefully approaching from the rear, my plan was grab both legs simultaneosly. Amazingly the hawk gave up without a fight.
It was clearly very emaciated and possibly suffering from frounce. I bundled her up in a box and jumped in a cab towards AMC and let the Horvaths know they had a new charge. Later that day word of a young kestrel on Madison and 95th st came in. I hoofed it over there and sure enough a not-quite-flighted kestrel was in a playground on 95th st. A concerned woman had called around and eventually gotten the Audubon Society, who contacted me. During the time of waiting, she said a strange man tried to take the bird, but they warded him off. She also said that she had spoke to the Wild Bird Fund who told her to just leave it be and that it would be ok. While I can understand why they may have said this to someone totally unfamiliar with handling birds, it is actually false. Due to the presence of 1)strange people 2)feral cats 3)off-leash dogs and 4)rats, unflighted birds really dont have much of a chance if left on the ground in an urban environment. I explained this to the concerned group and set about catching the little guy.
Basically I laid on my stomach and slowly, with an outstreched hand, caught the kestrels legs between my fingers. He was not at all happy about it and let out his sharp cry. Upon hearing that, some of the park goes reported hearing that same call throughout the day nearby. I put the kestrel in a box and set out to find the scrape. I had guessed that two previous kestrels from this area were also part of the same nest, but I was unable to find any definitive markings of a nest. The building right across from the park that was undergoing renovations seemed the most likely candidate, but I will have to return to the site to be sure...who knows there may be another one in there! Till then both are receiving the best care possible...hopefully they will be releasable in a few weeks.
and was sitting dazed on a 6th floor terrace. I arrived just to see the bird compose itself and fly off towards 59th st. I was able to track the bird and gained entry to the exposed staircase it had perched, 1 block away.
Carefully approaching from the rear, my plan was grab both legs simultaneosly. Amazingly the hawk gave up without a fight.
It was clearly very emaciated and possibly suffering from frounce. I bundled her up in a box and jumped in a cab towards AMC and let the Horvaths know they had a new charge. Later that day word of a young kestrel on Madison and 95th st came in. I hoofed it over there and sure enough a not-quite-flighted kestrel was in a playground on 95th st. A concerned woman had called around and eventually gotten the Audubon Society, who contacted me. During the time of waiting, she said a strange man tried to take the bird, but they warded him off. She also said that she had spoke to the Wild Bird Fund who told her to just leave it be and that it would be ok. While I can understand why they may have said this to someone totally unfamiliar with handling birds, it is actually false. Due to the presence of 1)strange people 2)feral cats 3)off-leash dogs and 4)rats, unflighted birds really dont have much of a chance if left on the ground in an urban environment. I explained this to the concerned group and set about catching the little guy.
Basically I laid on my stomach and slowly, with an outstreched hand, caught the kestrels legs between my fingers. He was not at all happy about it and let out his sharp cry. Upon hearing that, some of the park goes reported hearing that same call throughout the day nearby. I put the kestrel in a box and set out to find the scrape. I had guessed that two previous kestrels from this area were also part of the same nest, but I was unable to find any definitive markings of a nest. The building right across from the park that was undergoing renovations seemed the most likely candidate, but I will have to return to the site to be sure...who knows there may be another one in there! Till then both are receiving the best care possible...hopefully they will be releasable in a few weeks.
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