The Illinois Raptor Center Newsletter Archive

by Jacques Nuzzo, program director

published: Spring 1999

An anonymous call brought bad news. A hawk had been accidentallyshot, and according to the caller, it was still alive.

Calls like this one must be handled carefully, or the caller mayhang up without giving us enough information to find the animalin distress. Jane persuaded the person to come out to the centerand discuss the situation. The caller agreed. Soon, she was ableto take the person for a walk on our property and hear the wholestory.

My first priority was to learn what type of hawk was injured.Inside, I wanted to scream and yell at the person. Why would anyoneshoot a hawk? I wanted to chew him out for waiting so long tocome to us.

These things, however, are better left to law enforcement officialswho are trained to handle such situations. Since it was migrationtime, there was no way of knowing what type of hawk it could be.The Red-tailed hawk is the most common hawk seen in these parts,and is frequently misidentified. However, if my suspicions werecorrect, this wasn't a common hawk. After a long talk, we managedto get the names of the people involved in the hawk's shootingand the bird's location. Immediately, we contacted the conservationpolice officer for our area and relayed the information to him.A few hours later the CPO pulled up in his Jeep, a deep frownwas on his face.

I will never forget the scene. I asked the CPO where the birdwas. He said it was lying down in the back seat. I opened thedoor to the Jeep and looked down. There, in front of me, was thevery first Red-shouldered hawk I have ever seen. Its leg was completelyblown off. It's dark eyes stared blankly at me. It was in painand humiliated at the prospect of being unable to stand and defenditself.

The hawk was immediately put to sleep. An infection had spreadthroughout its body. No hawk could survive in the wild, or evenin captivity, with only one leg. Everyone at the center was depressed.We moped around for the rest of the day. Later, we were able tolearn more.

Two young men were poaching raccoons at night by shining aspot-light into the trees from their pick-up truck. These actionsare highly illegal, not to mention, thoughtless and careless.Unfortunately, the boys misidentified the hawk as a raccoon. Whilemost people can tell the difference between a hawk and a raccoon,the hawk wasn't seen clearly by the light of the flashlight. Tomake matters worse, the Red-shouldered hawk is an Illinois stateendangered species. Some are seen during migration, but few inthis part of the state. Very few nesting birds remain here.

Both boys face fines in excess of $2,000. They will have toappear before a judge for their crimes. However, the story hasa positive side to it. 1. The hawk's suffering has ceased.2. The person who approached us about the shooting didso because he had seen one of our educational programs. They arehaving an affect. 3. Believe it or not, we have two newyouth volunteers . The young men who shot the hawk want to help,not deny what they did. They want to make it right by learningall they can about birds of prey. Hopefully, they will want totry to save them and not destroy them.

This incident reaffirms my belief that education may be the mostimportant function of our organization. We must show people firsthand and face-to-face, the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls thatlive here. We must etch these faces in their minds. We must remindthem of the conservation laws and the consequences of breakingthose laws.
We must do this for the sake of people and wildlife alike.

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