Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk Rescues

I was given the opportunity to be part of a rescue of two juvenile Red-tailed Hawks (presumably both males) this past week. On Thursday, January 13 one juvenile crashed into the New York Times building in Times Square and was trapped in an outdoor atrium in two feet of snow. He was unable to regain his composure and fly out of the atrium, so he was brought to rehabilitators Bobby and Cathy Horvath. The Times covered the story and even did a recap a week later on the hawks progress. Both of the links are posted below:

Initial Story Part 1

Initial Story Part 2

Follow-up Story

The first link includes a short video of the event in case you are interested in understanding the circumstance this young hawk got himself into. All three links include pictures of the hawk as well.

The next rescue took place a week later, this past Wednesday (1-19-11). Another male juvenile RTH got himself stuck in an air shaft in a building owned by Equinox Fitness on East 85th Street. The hawk fell at least 6 stories to the basement, and was unable to find a way out. He was trapped in a small area that was about 6 feet wide and maybe 8 feet deep. He is definitely not the first bird to find his way down the air shaft. This area was filled with pigeon turds and even pigeon body parts, and was only accessible through a small cutout door in an office wall.  I was able to use a wooden stick to lure him closer so I could grab him out of the hole. He put up quite a fight and put on a full defensive display throughout the whole procedure. Besides being a bit dirty and some mild aches and pains, this hawk seems fine and will hopefully be releasable in the near future. Bobby and Cathy are treating him for with pain medication, a few good meals and lots of love. It seems like we are getting more hawks from up north wintering over here in NYC, so we are fortunate to have people like Bobby and Cathy to help deal with the situation.

Sorry for the poor image quality, this picture was taken by one of the gyms employees with a cell phone camera, but it gives you a good idea of the situation.