BAY VILLAGE, Ohio — Tim Jasinski puts on a pair of thick leather gloves and reaches into the dark interior of a red plastic animal crate. He pulls out a fierce looking bird with a big hooked beak, big yellow feet and razor-sharp talons. The bird doesn’t squawk, and Jasinski holds it snugly against his chest, keeping the bird as still as possible so it won’t be harmed.
Jasinski, a wildlife rehabilitation specialist at Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, has been nursing the red-tailed hawk back to health for the past two months. On December 6, a Westlake animal control officer brought the bird to the center after someone reported finding it on the ground near the highway.
Luckily, there were no broken bones, but Jasinski and fellow wildlife specialist Taryn Leach wrapped the injured right wing and shoulder to keep it immobile enough to heal.
The bird, thought to be a three year-old male, recovered enough to be placed in a flight cage to have the room to stretch its wings and take short flights to strengthen them.
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On Sunday, one day short of two months at the rehabilitation center, Jasinski knows the hawk is ready to fly back into the wild. He carries the bird to a stainless steel table. Banders Jill and Gary Fowler of Parma Heights stand at the ready to put identification bands on the hawk. As the bird is lowered, it spreads its wings, a redish-brown and white span of about four feet. It tucks the wings back in, and Jasinski wraps the bird in a soft blue towel, which will keep him snug and in the dark to lessen the stress.
Jill Fowler pulls out a gauge, quickly measuring the bird’s legs to determine the appropriate band size. “I’m thinking 7D,” she says to her husband, Gary. “What do you think?” Gary leans in, and agrees. It’s the biggest of the three red-tailed hawk band sizes. The bird is large, and stocky, close to two feet long. The identification bands carry information that allows them to not only to track the bird, but to learn about the success rate of their rehabilitation techniques.
Jill slips a sliver band, made of aluminum and supplied by the U.S. government, onto the bird’s left leg. She uses pliers to clamp it shut, and checks to make sure the band moves freely and will be comfortable for the bird.
Next, she grabs a red band that is especially for raptors in the Northeast Ohio area. The color is easy to spot from a distance, and people can know, even if they can’t see the letters and numbers, that it was banded by the Fowlers. “Eagles get green bands,” Jill says.
Bands on, Jasinski removes the towel from the bird and places it back in the crate. He grabs a large net on a long pole and says sheepishly, “Just in case things go wrong.”
But they don’t. Jasinski carries the bird to a wide open field across from the nature center. The early afternoon sun is melting what snow is left and, dressed in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt on this 40 degree day, he places the crate on the ground. Leach opens the door and steps back. The hawk doesn’t venture out. He sits, warily looking out the door. After about five minutes, they decide to open the large top of the crate, giving the bird a better idea that he is free to go.
He comes out, uncertainly, and sits next to the crate for a minute before quickly turning tail and flying to a tree. After resting there for about three minutes, another flash of rusty red tail and he was gone, headed back toward Westlake.
The group walks back to the parking lot, the Fowlers headed home to watch the Super Bowl. “Go Pats!” she yells. “Really, no Falcons?” the others joke.
February 11-12 is Birds of Prey Weekend at Cleveland Metroparks Rocky River Nature Center. On Saturday and Sunday, there will be opportunities to see hawks and eagles and other birds up close and to learn about their habits and habitats. There will be crafts, hikes, ice-carving and lots of other things to do.
For more information, go to Cleveland Metroparks Birds of Prey Weekend, or call 440-734-6660.
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