by Steve Morris

Karen, Pat and Steve Morris took an overnight trip to Pendleton, Oregon for Mother’s Day to visit Lynn Tomkins, Pat’s eldest daughter.  Lynn manages Blue Mountain Wildlife in Pendleton.  After checking in to the hotel and returning with a veggie-burrito dinner in hand, we arrived just in time for an injured Red Tailed Hawk to be delivered from Stanfield, having apparently been struck by a car.  That, of course, delayed dinner.

 Lynn and her intern Adrian applied anesthesia, and then X-rayed the bird.  A full-body x-ray was taken with the hawk positioned symmetrically so the two wings could be compared, making it easier to see the extent of the damage to the injured wing.

Unfortunately, the wing injury was so extensive (both the humerus and ulna were broken and there was considerable damage to both the elbow and the shoulder) that the bird would never be able to fly, and it had to be euthanized.

Unfortunately, that’s how many car-hawk encounters end.  But in luckier cases, the hawk can recover enough to be released,or at least can become an education bird. As Adrian finished analyzing the hawk’s blood (all raptors are checked for lead) we sat down with Lynn for a not-quite-warm burrito dinner and some wine to contemplate the ups and downs of life at a wildlife rehab center.

Red Tail Hawk arrives from                        Anesthesia                                          Setting up the X-Ray

Stanfield (in a cat box)

The countryside near Pendleton.