Life On The Farm: Wild Wings

Long story short - I found a hawk with a damaged wing, cared for it and called the Missouri dept. of conservation and they said to just let it go, so I raised it's health and now the hawk is soaring the sky again, free!
The full story is below.

I heard the dogs barking outside went out the north door to go check. I found the dogs barking at the back fence.... the dogs thought that the cows were too close to 'their' fence.

After I called the dogs off and told them that it wasn't anything to worry about I turned to go inside, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the cows were starring at something on the ground. "Wonder what that could be" I thought to myself, "Probably nothing important." and I dismissed it. I walked toward the house, paused and decided that I better go check it out.

On my way back to the fence a large bird flapped and hopped startling the cows, first the cows ran away then as cows do, they came thundering back the hawk hopped into the sky but strangely it was unable to escape the lumbering giants, and they trampled it. I was stunned, "A hawk!" I dashed into the house shouting "I'm going to catch a Hawk!" I called for beckah's assistance, grabbing a pair of dad's trusty gloves, and one of our old purple sheets Beckah and I ran out into the cold.

I saw the cows sniffing what I supposed to be a crumpled hawk in the grass. "Come on, it's over here!" We scaled the fence and ran the cows off, my heart fell as we searched the ground. "Maybe it did fly away, oh well. *sigh* " I said to myself despairing. "What color was it?" Beckah asked. "Um, brown speckled, with bits of white, I think it was a Red Tailed Hawk, it could still be here just camouflaged in the grass." I answered. There it was, laying still, blinking in the setting sun, about 15ft from were I had seen it. "Bekah, grab the end of this sheet, we are going to cover it and wrap it up, it may be dead..." Throwing the sheet over the hawk and wrapping it up I carefully picked it up. By this time the cows had returned from there scare. "Let's get out of here, climb the fence first beck, and quick. " This herd of cows is very rambunctious... Handing the hawk to backah as I climbed the fence I got caught on the barbed wire. A particularly aggressive young bull charged- I got over just in time and the dogs drove off the cows.

I took the hawk into the house to the downstairs bathroom, where I had been hatching chicks/ducklings.

In 10 min I arranged a cage in the warm room, I used the small black dog crate, and fastened a perch on one end. setting the hawk inside, I stood back to watch. The hawk was definitely under shock, it didn't move he just lay there blinking, barely breathing. I picked him up and positioned him on the perch prying open his talons from their tight clutched position. His legs locked and held him up otherwise he would've fallen off. I probed him, feeling all over as I expected- his right wing was swollen. Touching his damaged wing instantly awoke him from his trance. He stood up to his full height, fluffed his feathers making him look 2x his size, and turned to look at me. His right wing still hung down, I guessed that it was dislocated by the way it felt. I held his head and with my other hand I squeezed and pushed, moving his elbow back into place.

Fluffing his feathers again he settled himself on the perch. his eyes sparkled a thank you.

For the next 3 days I fed The hawk turkey meat, and gave water through a eye dropper, he was terribly thin. I decided to turn the hawk in to the Conservation department. I called our MCD and the lady that picked up the phone was unconcerned and didn't want to hear what I had to say she said in a flat tone "Did you say a Hawk? Yeah well since it's a federal bird you aren't supposed to have it in your possession, so..." she gave me a avian vet phone number-he lived far away. I called and told the vet the story, he told me to let it go, and let nature take it's course. He said that the hawk would not survive.

So After a wonderful photo shoot with the Red Tailed Hawk, I let him go, he hopped off, and I left him, secretly hoping to see him the next day. When I returned to the place I had released him, the Hawk was no where to be found, all I could see was a Young Red Tailed Hawk flying high above me in the sky, every 3rd flap was kinda funny, so I think that it was my Hawk. :) He was very gentle, never clawed, bit, or fought me, I enjoyed carrying him on my arm just like a falconer. I named him Augustus.

I do NOT advise anyone to catch hawks on the spot-and it wasn't the best thing for me to do, but in this case it did turn out for the better.

Here he is in the down stairs bathroom on the first night.