20160104-Red-shouldered Hawk

On January 3rd, one of our volunteers released this red shouldered hawk on 80 acres of land with three wetlands, one pond, and a swamp. Prairie grass will be a great hunting ground and the deciduous trees and coniferous trees will make a great roost.  He will be able to hunt field mice, small birds, rabbits, and amphibians. She was able to observe him soaring and getting acquainted to his new home.  While watching over an hour, she was lucky enough to see him get his first meal of a field mouse! This red-shouldered hawk had been in our care for over a year due to a presumed sickness from the West Nile Virus.  He physically recovered except for his feathers.  Each time he molted (naturally replaced) his flight feathers, they came in deformed and the feather was not healthy.  After many months, he finally began replacing old feathers with healthy, new feathers!  A hawk this size eats about 5 or 6 medium size mice per day. Over the course of his 12 month stay, he consumed $538 of food. Please help us with a donation so we can continue to give each bird the chance it needs to recover, even if it takes over a year!