Roundstonefarm Blog

As I was pulling out of the driveway this morning heading down to do breakfast at Roundstone Farm, I saw a young Red Shouldered hawk standing on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. A pick-up truck had just missed it. I stopped the FJ and jumped out to try to wave off any cars coming up the hill. Luckily, there were few that early in the morning. The hawk was just standing there,  it didn’t appear like it had been hit, but it didn’t make any attempt to get away from me as I came up to it. I knew it would  get hit if I didn’t do something, for the neighborhood crows were already gathering for a kill. So, I took my jacket off and threw it over the hawk. I then grabbed the whole bundle, hawk and jacket. The hawk was surprisingly light and it didn’t put up much of a scuffle. Still I remembered a similar encounter I had with a Great Horned owl a couple of years ago. Similar situation, for it too was standing on the road, but in that case it had been hit and had lost an eye. I threw a jacket on that one too. But unlike the hawk, that owl’s talons went right through that jacket. I learned from that experience that you had to hold that baby pretty tight, there was no “nice owl, I just want to see what you look like.” I held on tight until I was able to put it into a dog carrier. Same thing this time with the hawk, however, at least this hawk didn’t smell like skunk, which was a major prey for the owl. After breakfast I went up to the house to see how the hawk was doing. Seemed to be ok, so I put a pair of welding gloves on and reached in to grab it for a better look. Man, what a set of talons. It puffed its feathers up till it looked twice its size. I thought about letting it loose to see if it could fly, but thought better of it, because if it couldn’t fly and it got away from me, the crows and scrub jays would have killed it for sure. So, like the owl, I took it to Wildcare Animal Hospital in San Rafael. After about 20 minutes and donating $100, I left with the dog carrier, for the hawk was in good hands. The volunteer on duty gave me its patient number if I wanted to call back later to see how the hawk was doing. On the way home I did a couple of errands and stopped to get a latte. I parked in the shade and read for about 10 minutes. Forty-five minutes later I woke up and drove home. Actually, it was probably more like an hour and a half. (Isn’t life grand?) Anyway,when I got home, there was a message on the machine telling me that the hawk was ok and that I could pick it up the next day to bring it back to Olema. The caller noted that the hawk might be one of a pair that was taking care of a couple of young ones, so it was needed. Cool, I get to bring it home. Not like the last time with the owl, for they wouldn’t give it back to me to let go where I had found it. Wildcare kept that owl a little too long, I think. It died. Karen and I were bummed about that owl for years. We’ve been given a second chance with this one.