Wounded Harrier

Yesterday was the first day of Pheasant Season here in Rawlins county Kansas. With record Pheasant crops in our area,  an unusual amount of rednecks in pick up trucks and dogs appeared out of no where.

Saturday morning, it sounded like a firing range out there. Volleys of 20 30 shots at a time, followed by more shots every 30 seconds.  Bands of cousins of friends of friends roving around in their pick up trucks. Seems none of these folks walks the draws like they do on the TV  hunting shows.  Maybe they do ? But I never see them doing anything except trawling along in their pickups waiting to jump out and shoot when nobody is looking.
Today,Sunday,  things were a bit calmer. My legs were a bit shot after our 8 mile run yesterday, so I decided to take off on the bike while Sandy did Yoga on the deck. It was a balmy 60 degree Indian summer type day.

At the top of the Hill near our house, I ran into my neighbor Delbert Anderson coming down to water his Cows. He reported seeing a Golden Eagle  roosting on a telephone pole shadowing three turkeys. When I go to the top of the hill , I saw the turkeys running along , but no eagle or raptor of any kind in sight. I really wanted to see the eagle.

All along the rest of my ride,  I was flushing pheasants right and left.  Six coveys, and 30 birds later, I was starting to get used to them , when I saw a lone bird flush.  This bird flew up about 5 feet and then came back down, which caused me to take a  second glance. I could tell it was a hawk, and I thought, wow how bold, it must be protecting a kill by the side of the road. And then I noticed splotches of blood on one of its wings.

Having recently attempted the  rescue of  two other birds I was currently batting 500. One Collared Dove lived ,  and one House Finch well on the way to recovery  got mauled by the cat when it got loose from its cage.  Now faced with another potential rescue,  I sat there wondering what options I had.  This bird , a Harrier, had a nasty beak and sharp talons. Aside from the broken wing it was at full strength not happy with me. I called Sandy and asked her to get the car and some bird capture supplies and meet me at road “M” about 1 1/2 miles  North East of our house. For then next 15 minutes or so I just kept an eye on the bird and thinking of ways I might be able to capture it without getting mauled, not to mention what to do from there.

Sandy came with capture kit and Nick our old dog piled in the car. The dog was a bit of a distraction, but Sandy  feels bad leaving Nick home alone . The capture kit included one large plastic Tupperware type crate, a wool blanket and a small screen window pane.

Sandy took one look at the bird staring back at us and said we can’t catch that, it will scratch our eyes out.

I had already figured if I can get the blanket on top of it, I could then wrap it up and throw it in the box.

Before I could get close on first attempt the bird flew up in the air again , and landed deep into the weeds growing along the side of the road. On my second attempt I tossed the blanket and he escaped into some deeper weeds. I trudged over to him to him, now lying semi prone on his back in what I assume was a deliberate defensive position. His talons wide open facing me, beak open and wings spread. I suspect this position would be effective against a coyote or ground predator, but for me and my blanket it allowed me the opportunity to toss the blanket over it without him hopping out of the way.  I had him pinned down under the blanket and I slowly  cradled  his wings together with both my hands. Problem was his head was not completely covered and he was ready to dig in with his beak if I let go.  Fortunately, Sandy felt safe enough to pull the blanket up over his head and I was able to wrap him up. It took a minute or so to free the blanket from the adjoining weeds , but with the birds head and talons completely covered by the thick wool, he was not struggling at all.

So now we had our bird, still wrapped in the blanket in a box in the car for transport back to the house. First order of business was where to put him ? We have a bunch of spare dingy basement rooms and I thought we could contain him down there, although I dreaded having to catch him again. What to do if he got out of the room and loose in the house. Nick might dispatch of him with one bite, or perhaps the bird would latch on to Nick’s nose like the time he grabbed a prairie dog in his mouth. Between Nicks yelping and the Prarie dogs screaming it sounds like a medieval torture session. Only in the end the Prarie dog ended up limp and dead when Nick finally let go.

As we pulled into the driveway we started looking at the myriad of out buildings we inherited with this property. And then I remembered the Chicken coup, although it smelled strongly of rodent droppings, it was secure from coyotes and out of the weather.

Once I the Harrier was in the coup, I got on the phone with a bird rescue center in Pueblo. Diane Miller was the director and she told me to bring the bird in right away. When I told her I was 250 miles away and had to take care of it for the night , she told me not to worry about food but to make sure the bird had water and was out of the elements. I told her the story of how I found the bird and that it was hunting season here. She assured me in a very nice tone that the people that shot it didn’t mean to and was sure it was an accident.   I am thinking to myself,” hmm, no they were drunk yahoos shooting at anything that moves, and they could care less that they shot a bird”, and then it dawned on me. She must get calls from many a guilty hunter all the time. Threatening them a federal crime will end up getting the bird tossed in a ditch by the side of the road with no witnesses. She is thinking  I am the perpetrator ?

Tomorrow we will transport the bird to the Broomfield rescue center, and if all goes well his wing will mend with some antibiotics and rehab.

11/17/2011 Epilogue: Unfortunatly Necropsy had set in on  Carlysle’s injured wing and he had to be put down.