Aug. 31 was a momentous day for staff of the Rowena Wildlife Clinic and the Hood River Parks and Recreation Department. A red-tailed hawk, which had been discovered hopping around in the bushes by volunteers during routine trail restoration work earlier this year, was ready for release back into the wild.
The injured bird was first found on July 14 by Gina Mares, an employee of the parks department. While finishing her work for the day on park property near Westside Elementary School, Mares noticed unusual movement in some nearby blackberry bushes. She discovered the hawk, fully-grown but still quite young, suffering from a broken wing.
Not wanting to leave the bird there, Mares, who also happens to do volunteer work along Indian Creek Trail, contacted her fellow volunteer, Chuck Gehling. Together, the two decided to contact the Rowena Wildlife Clinic, and Dr. Jean Cypher, the clinic’s founder, agreed to take in the bird. As Mares was unwilling to try and capture the hawk herself, Cypher sent a volunteer from the clinic to assist.
The bird was “a large, aggressive youngster,” Dr. Cypher recalled to Uplift Local about the hawk’s time in the clinic’s care. “She managed to catch and eat a large ground squirrel that was injudicious enough to burrow into her outdoor hospital cage.”
Luckily, the hawk’s injury was uncomplicated: a minor fracture which only required three weeks in bandages, plus some additional time in a flight cage before being released.
Two other red-tailed hawks were also in Dr. Cypher’s care during that time. One, another juvenile recovered near I-84, also had minor injuries, but the third was a more complex case. Its bone fracture was severe enough that Dr. Cypher originally planned to euthanize the hawk, but her colleague Dr. Dave Stauffacher of Mountain Top Wildlife in White Salmon convinced her to try surgery. It was successful.
Fast forward to the end of August, when all three hawks were deemed fit to fly free. Mares and Gehling, as well as Mark Hickok, director of Hood River Parks and Recreation, were among those invited to watch. The birds were released along Indian Creek Trail.
Gehling hopes the birds are thriving following their recovery. He told Uplift Local that another trail volunteer, who lives near the release site, saw a group of three hawks fly over her head just a few days after the injured birds were returned to the wild. One had markings similar to the hawk he and Mares had found.
“Anytime we see a hawk now, we sort of wonder whether it’s one of the ones that we released,” Gehling said. “Hopefully thinking that everybody has made it through this.”
Gehling told his fellow directors about this event during the Sept. 3 meeting of the Hood River Soil and Water Conservation District. Read full notes of that meeting by Gorge Documenter Ken Earle.
Swen Carlson
Swen Carlson is Uplift Local's Community Editor in Oregon. He has lived in The Dalles for the past decade and got his start in journalism with Uplift Local's Gorge Documenters program.
