Hawk Release

A Young Hawk Gets A Second Chance January 26, 2011 Reporter: Patrick McMurtry Videographer: Brad Rice

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EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO

Barbara Dean is a bird lover, and she got the chance to prove that love in August of 2010. "I came up on this hawk sitting on the west bound lane and I saw this man standing over it, kind of protecting it. I'm a hawk lover so I stopped to find out what was going on. It didn't appear to be injured at all. We put it in the bed of my pickup truck. Someone called ahead to the DNR office in Elkins and made arrangements for me to deliver the hawk there."

That was back in the summer, months of rehab on this beautiful hawk later, and it's ready to soar again. Although the Division of Natural Resources didn't do the actual mending, it did put the hawk in the right hands.

Jim Fregonara, a biologist with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, says the agency plays middle man for injured raptors. "The general public will call us and say they have seen an injured raptor, hawk, eagle or owl, and we'll either go out there and catch the bird, or sometimes folks have these injured birds and they'll give them to us and we'll give them to the folks who have more experience in fixing birds."

In most cases, that's the West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center near Morgantown. That's where this beauty wound up.

Jo Santiago, of Flying Higher L.L.C., knows red tailed hawks very well. "Barbara, it's a very different bird than the one you picked up. Red tails are the most common hawks we have in North America. They are adaptable to all kinds of places, they are a very intelligent bird and love to soar in an open area, that's their preferred hunting area, they are big chested, broad winged, with a big fan tail."

And they have a lot of big fans too, people who care enough to drive hours out of their way to save a life.

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