Last week, my husband found a young red-tailed hawk at the edge of our driveway. The raptor had a wound on his neck and was covered in flies. I took a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-SKg4er10 while we waited for Iowa Bird Rehabilitation to arrive. She was there within 15 minutes, threw a small blanket over the bird, picked him up and placed him in a cat carrier. She said they feed the raptors mice. I began to worry because last winter we had mice in our house and the pest control people placed bait stations outside. I read that the poisoned mice can then poison raptors so we need to get rid of the bait stations (unless our house becomes infested again). We have owls, hawks, , bald eagles, and peregrine falcons in this area. Sadly, these bait stations are all over the place, for example, at restaurants. Funny mouse story: Last winter, I saw one run across our kitchen floor. I set a trap but never caught the mouse. Our son picked up our dog and took him to his apartment one weekend. When I went to bed, the dog bowl was full of dry food. When I woke up, it was completely empty! I thought, “How many mice do we have?!” My kids did not believe this story and thought Mom was loopy. But the pest control man said a single mouse can spend a whole night moving food to his lair, one piece at a time. Months later, I found the food neatly lined up along the back wall of the pantry behind the cans.
Injured baby hawk captured by Iowa Bird Rehabilitation
