Dunwoody North resident Gary Betz found an injured hawk in distress and didn't know what to do so he posted the picture above to the comments of my blog, to twitter and probably a few other social media sites. Within minutes he was receiving replies and suggestions on how to help the bird. After Gary rescued the bird out of the tree, the hawk was transferred over to DeKalb County Animal Services where they hope to rehabilitate him and release it once again to watch over the fine City of Dunwoody. Kudos good man.Below are a few of Gary's tweets from the evening.
*** Hawk Emergency *** I'm in Dunwoody, Georgia and 100 yards away from me is this wounded hawk. Who should I go to?
Every place is ether closed or say they can assist if I bring the hawk in. Putting on my gloves & safety glasses now.
Sadly yes, it has flies coming from the wound in its right wing. Has a bone showing. About 7 feet up in the tree.
Captured the wounded hawk with a couple of neighbors and is in my garage now in my laundry basket awaiting AC.
So, County Animal Control picked up my hawk, the cool thing is if they are able to rehabilitate her, they will release her at my address.
Gary, in doing the research on this, I found the Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort (AWARE) who also could have helped.
5 comments:
Great job Gary! My sister works for a wildlife rescue in Ohio, and said because of the location of the injury, and depending on the extent of it (those bones break easily), it may not be possible to release the bird back into the wild. If that's the case, a group like AWARE can take care of it and use it as an educational tool. Don't worry - it will have a very nice life!
John, really? With all the true heroes in this city - my name should never be mentioned except for purposes of derision. It's much easier to continue to be labeled the village idiot, then expectations are not so high.
Though, please let me here mention my heroic neighbors - Hermes and Shelby Edwards, who were just as instrumental in the hawk rescue, if not more.
And the countless neighborhood children - Shelby, Jr., Mary McLean, Lauren (and her Mom, Susan), and Emory - who braved sharp talons and a large cleaving beak to chase the hawk out of a snake infested thicket to rescue the poor thing. And for not laughing at me for wearing my large winter gloves and big safety goggles.
Then when the truly professional DeKalb County Officer (Ms. Head) picked the hawk up she assured me that they would hand her over to a rescue organization and if she can be rehabilitated they will release her back in our neck of the woods.
Just one last note to this narrative, when we had the hawk in my wife's laundry basket, she was calm and eagerly sipped water from the baster we use for our Thanksgiving turkey, which is actually kind of morbidly ironic and perhaps hypocritical on my part - that this should be the instrument that I used in a large bird rescue.
Mr. Heneghan,
I emailed a friend of mine that works with animal control and they have no knowledge of this incident.
Did you witness it personally?
Stuart, a bit of a weaselly trolling jerk aren't you? And I know exactly who you are, so denying that aspect of your character won't do any good.
Before you go and question my credibility in front of the entire community, please check with Officer Head at DeKalb Animal Control, she was called by my neighbor, Hermes, whose property the hawk was on initially, and picked up the hawk from my garage last night.
Check with my neighbor Susan and daughter Lauren who first saw the hawk in the tree and informed me of its plight.
Check with the Shelby Edwards family, whom are my neighbors, and did so much to assist in the rescue.
Check with my next-door neighbor John who came in my garage to see the hawk and have a beer with Hermes and me while we were awaiting Officer Head to pick up the hawk.
Check with my wife who saw me giving the hawk water with her turkey baster and chastised me when I wanted to merely wash the baster and not toss it out.
Check with the neighborhood kids who witnessed the entire rescue and were so very worried about the hawk that it would die before the night was through and told their teachers and classmates about the incident in school today.
Really, Stuart, you are pretty much beneath contempt, not even sure why I have to justify myself with you, but if you do insist on your innuendos associated with the credibility of my good name, you will have a libel lawsuit on your hands.
"Flannery's Angel"
Lead us to those we are waiting for,
Those who are waiting for us.
May your wings protect us
may we not be strangers in the lush province of joy.
Remember us who are weak,
You who are strong in your country which lies beyond the thunder,
Raphael, angel of happy meeting,
resplendent, hawk of the light.
- Charles Wright
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