New Orleans Firemen rescue hawk
August 20, 2013 4:39 AM   Subscribe

Rescuing a kitten from a tree is child's play compared to the crew of Engine No. 35's capture of a hawk in City Park early Sunday evening (Aug. 18). A resident called the New Orleans Fire Department to report a hawk trailing a long length of twine, tangled in a tree. "I don't like how he is looking at me" said Andy Monteverde, a firefighter working up the nerve to grab the hawk. Capt. Mark Shubert encouraged F/F Andy, "Just grab a handful of leg." Scroll down for the live action video.

This morning, Shubert reported that he delivered the bird safely to the Audubon Zoo, where it is being examined, X-rayed and rehydrated. Shubert said that the bird was identified as a juvenile Red Shouldered hawk, a common sight in Crescent City skies. Shubert said that if all goes as planned, the bird will be transferred to a wildlife rehabilitator and released.
posted by JujuB (21 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Makes a change from rescuing kites from trees.
posted by MuffinMan at 5:08 AM on August 20, 2013 [3 favorites]


Nice job, guys!

My hawk story: When I was a kid, my sister, the biology teacher in a fairly small town, became the recipient of every "injured" animal found in the community. Most of them, of course, weren't injured at all and should have just been left alone, but typically, by the time they ended up at our house, it was too late to just let them loose especially younger animals, they usually needed to reach an age when they were a bit autonomous.

We ended up with two Red Tailed Hawks, one of which could fly, the other one not so much. They lived in a 10x20x6 fenced/covered enclosure in the back yard, got feed a healthy diet of road kill rabbits and squirrels with release planned once they were old enough (and the one's wing had healed).

Unlike a lot of the animals we fostered, these never became very domesticated (which is the preference, but hard to avoid at times). I learned this the hard way when, standing too close to the enclosure one day, the Hawk that could fly came at the fence talons first, pushed it out enough when it hit to catch my cheek about an inch from my eye and leave a 3 inch cut. This was, without doubt, the most significant "red badge of courage" ever displayed amongst my 10 year old cohort! Lesson learned, stay back from these guys! Feeding them involved opening the door to the enclosure just enough to throw in dinner, and fast enough that they couldn't make an escape. I had a lot of experience handling hawks and owls, these weren't the first that we had acquired, but these were no fun to deal with if it could be avoided.

One day the injured hawk got out (nope, don't know how). I was in the house when I saw a car stopped on the road outside and realized that the hawk, now nearly full grown, was standing in the middle of the lane with some guy trying to figure out what to do.

I ran out, an 80 lb., skinny, 10 year old kid and started to walk into the road to get the hawk which, next to me looked like a friggin' Eagle. The guy yelled for me to stay back, I looked at him and said, "Don't worry, I'll get it.", walked up to it as it jumped and flapped, reached out, grabbed it by the legs, held it upside down at arms length, and walked back to the house. The driver of the car stood there looking a bit amazed.
posted by HuronBob at 5:16 AM on August 20, 2013 [17 favorites]


Yay! I could listen to people of Southwest Louisiana talk forever. That is the most charming accent.
posted by dog food sugar at 5:22 AM on August 20, 2013 [4 favorites]


That is the most charming accent

I just realized that as well, and the guy's face smiling as he held it up to the camera is adorable.
posted by theredpen at 5:26 AM on August 20, 2013


I see hawks along the river pretty often. I like the juveniles, because they are usually molting their leg feathers, which makes them look like they are wearing ridiculous trousers. That's pretty much my big hawk story, beyond seeing a raptor grab a mouse in the grass between a sidewalk and a busy street. Raptors, they adapt.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:41 AM on August 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


What a great video! I love the way the guy off camera coaches the firefighter through grabbing the hawk, and his smile when he got the bird. Lucky hawk!
posted by apricot at 5:44 AM on August 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


Whew.
posted by rtha at 5:46 AM on August 20, 2013 [4 favorites]


Yay! I could listen to people of Southwest Louisiana talk forever

Actually, that is a typical New Orleans accent. It is a difficult accent to mimic and you rarely will hear an actor capture it with an authentic sound. The movie industry portrays the New Orleans accent as a light Southern, NOT!
posted by JujuB at 6:03 AM on August 20, 2013 [3 favorites]


oops: SouthEAST. Don't ask me for directions ever.
posted by dog food sugar at 6:03 AM on August 20, 2013


Agreed JujuB. It's such a sweet hybrid of French from a few centuries ago, the islands outside the Gulf and god only knows mixed in there.
posted by dog food sugar at 6:07 AM on August 20, 2013


Many years ago, when I was a (volunteer) battalion chief, I sent a firefighter up a tree to grab a cat that had been there a while. It was clearly hungry and dehydrated but still put up a hell of a fight. The cat was taken by Animal Control and the firefighter received first aid for numerous scratches. It was the one and only time in my 30+ years where we ever got called for a cat in a tree.
posted by tommasz at 6:21 AM on August 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


On the college campus where I work, hawks are a fairly common sight. I was out walking one day and witnessed one trying to snag a squirrel in a tree. The hawk would leap from branch to branch in pursuit, but the squirrel always stayed just out of reach. They finally wound up with the hawk standing on a horizontal branch and the squirrel directly underneath it hanging upside down. The squirrel must have decided it'd had enough of this standoff and started darting up either side of the branch to harass the hawk, who stood there swiveling its head back and forth trying to follow the furious little rodent. The hawk got so annoyed by its potential meal's behavior that it just up and flew away. The small crowd of spectators that had gathered around the tree erupted in cheers.
posted by orme at 6:42 AM on August 20, 2013 [5 favorites]


It was not terribly interested in the raw chicken it was offered.

What a snob.
posted by fontophilic at 7:02 AM on August 20, 2013


It's awesome when a story about New Orleans is not about crime or corruption.

P.S. My kids will have that accent, just one of the many reasons why it's super-cool to live here!
posted by polly_dactyl at 7:07 AM on August 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


"I don't like how he is looking at me"

I find this hysterical. How else would a hawk look at you when it's dangling upside down and you're trying to grab it?

Also, agreed on the New Orleans/Southeast Louisiana Accent. This was the precise reason I couldn't stand watching True Blood.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 7:16 AM on August 20, 2013


Andy is famous!
posted by eustatic at 7:41 AM on August 20, 2013


"Just be positive."
posted by Madamina at 8:10 AM on August 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


I can't see raptor stories on here anymore without remembering the "This is why you wear goggles" post.

Thwack.
posted by cromagnon at 11:12 AM on August 20, 2013


The bird was amazingly calm, considering the situation.

Love the smile on the face of the successful firefighter.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:09 PM on August 20, 2013


fontophilic: "'It was not terribly interested in the raw chicken it was offered.'

What a snob.
"

The hawk's thoughts: "Dead already. And cold, even. Eccchh, feh, nasty." (I project.)
posted by Lexica at 8:49 PM on August 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


Lexica: "fontophilic: "'It was not terribly interested in the raw chicken it was offered.'

What a snob.
"

The hawk's thoughts: "Dead already. And cold, even. Eccchh, feh, nasty." (I project.)
"

"And there's no tasty warm red sauce!"
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 12:59 AM on August 21, 2013


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