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I came back because spirit wings was right - my being offended isn't what matters, what matters is the birds having their stories told to people that may have never been exposed before to such wonderful creatures. Thanks spirit wings for helping me get my head on straight again, and it's nice to be back I missed all the wonderful folks here.
This little fellow is often called a Prairie Hawk, he's not really a hawk at all he is really a member of the Falcon family. Looks like the falconers gave up on this little guy and kicked him loose. He came is nearly starved and showing signs of extended captivity (ragged feather tips etc.). But after 3 weeks of good food, vitamins and proper care he is up and doing very well. He should be ready for release by about March or April. He needs a couple months to sharpen his mouse hunting skills before he goes into the wild. The vast majority of the orgainized falconers are good folks and take great pride and care of their birds. But Prairie Hawks (really Prairie Falcons) like this fellow are prized by those few bad apple falconers and often sold on the black market for lots of $$$$. Sometimes if the bird won't learn to hunt well enough the falconers will just give up and kcik the bird loose or the bird manages to get away during training and we suspect that is what has happened to this fellow.
NAB
This little fellow is a Harrier Hawk (aka Marsh Hawk) he came in with a banged up wing, probably hit a window or maybe got clipped by a car or something. He had a fractured bone in the wing - but a couple weeks in a figure 8 sling and his wing is almost good as new, just a little lump on the bone where the fracture was. He should be OK to go this spring too. These guys can actually hover in one spot it mid air then dive straight down to catch their prey (usualy small mice of large bugs). The Harrier jet plane is named after them.
