#3 released and is flying free

I received wonderful news today from Rick Schubert at the Schuylkill Wildlife Rehabilitation Center that #3 (aka Squishy) has been released and is now flying free. This picture was taken at the SWRC before she left.

         Steve Aldrich

From Rick Schubert:

"Number 3 was recently taken to an undisclosed location, where she is already flying free and is being hacked-out. She's an enormously strong and fast flier, with a penchant for killing almost everything in sight. She watches carefully, judges the best moment, then swoops down and grabs it. She's in a carefully selected habitat to give her the best chance for a long life.

With juvenile red-tailed hawks such as Number 3 at a wildlife center, the release is not a single moment where you let the bird go and walk away; it is a process. Because of that, she needs lots of privacy and quiet to complete the rehabilitation process.

As always, wildlife rehab is not about interfering with natural processes; it is about un-interfering. We give back a chance at life to an animal who lost it as a result of something we've done. Just a chance, not a guarantee, because we believe these animals have value in and of themselves, for their own sake as living beings, and not simply for the use or enjoyment of humans. In this case, the hawk didn't ask to be born on a cement building with cameras and streets and cars and artificial lights and honking horns and smog, nor did it deserve to take its very first flight looking into Winter Street, the Vine Street Expressway, and a dozen lanes of the Ben Franklin Parkway. Their adaptability does them credit, but millions of years of evolution doesn't prepare them to make a first landing on a concrete sidewalk.

The rehabilitation of Number 3 was a complete success. Thanks to all the Hawkwatchers for their concern, and to Della and Carolyn Sutton and Peg Smith for their help. It's always OK to care.

It has been a busy summer, as we took in over 100 injured birds of prey so far in 2011, in addition to almost 3000 animals in total, and our Clinic is still full of patients. We hope and pray that next year the Franklin Institute hawks won't need us again."

Here's #3 in a recent picture showing the strength that Rick mentions.

         Steve Aldrich

Hacking-out is a technique used in rehabilitation to help the hawk to become an independent hunter by giving her exercise and experience outside of any cage or enclosure.

It seems perfect timing to get this news of #3 finally flying free at the end of a week when we think we have seen her siblings for the last time and believe they have headed out on their migratory flight.

Here are the last pictures from September 2 of the remaining eyass.  It had just caught a mouse on the ball field....

                     Carolyn Sutton

... and then looking eerily similar in its take-off technique to #3....

                     Carolyn Sutton

 
... it left and we have not seen it since.

 All three of the 2011 eyasses are now on the way to the next exciting stage in their lives, and they head out with our highest hopes for them.