Gordon Gould
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2007
- Messages
- 6,791
- Location
- NorthEastern, VT
- Tractor
- Kubota L3010DT, Kubota M5640SUD, Dresser TD7G Dozer
As I was backing the tractor out of the garage this morning I glanced down back and saw what I thought was a turkey caught up in my wife's blueberry frame netting. She leaves the netting on in winter to keep the deer from eating all the terminal bud and last years new growth.
When I got down there I saw it was a red tailed hawk. It was hanging upside down inside with it's talons all tangled in the netting. It had quit struggleing.
I went back up and put on my chainsaw helmet and face mask along with my welding gloves and my wife brought out a pair of kitchen shears. I cut a circle around his talons. He just stared at me but stayed very still. He dropped to the ground on his back. He spread his wings and opened his beak. His feet were still tied together with netting and pointing straight up. He let me use the shears to clip the netting tangled all around his tallons. He still was not moving, just staring. There is still some netting in the picture but I was able to get it all.
My wife lifted the 2X2 that was attached to the bottom of the netting so he could get out. But it just laid there in the loose snow. More relaxed though. It withdrew its wings when we moved away but just laid there upside down, still staring.
I got a long handled shovel and scraped a bare place in the snow so he would have some footing. Then I gently pushed the shovel in the snow under it and pulled it out onto the bare spot. It stayed still on it's back never taking it's eyes off me. I carefully rolled it over with the shovel and it immediately got on it's feet and turned to face us. What a beautiful bird. He stood there about 15 seconds then silently and gracefully took of and landed in a pine about 50 feet away. Stayed there about 30 more seconds then was gone.
You could tell it was alarmed but seemed to under stand we were helping it. The way it just layed there I thought it was injured or exhausted. But when it flew it looked totally normal. When it left the pine it went high and way out of sight.
When I got down there I saw it was a red tailed hawk. It was hanging upside down inside with it's talons all tangled in the netting. It had quit struggleing.
I went back up and put on my chainsaw helmet and face mask along with my welding gloves and my wife brought out a pair of kitchen shears. I cut a circle around his talons. He just stared at me but stayed very still. He dropped to the ground on his back. He spread his wings and opened his beak. His feet were still tied together with netting and pointing straight up. He let me use the shears to clip the netting tangled all around his tallons. He still was not moving, just staring. There is still some netting in the picture but I was able to get it all.
My wife lifted the 2X2 that was attached to the bottom of the netting so he could get out. But it just laid there in the loose snow. More relaxed though. It withdrew its wings when we moved away but just laid there upside down, still staring.
I got a long handled shovel and scraped a bare place in the snow so he would have some footing. Then I gently pushed the shovel in the snow under it and pulled it out onto the bare spot. It stayed still on it's back never taking it's eyes off me. I carefully rolled it over with the shovel and it immediately got on it's feet and turned to face us. What a beautiful bird. He stood there about 15 seconds then silently and gracefully took of and landed in a pine about 50 feet away. Stayed there about 30 more seconds then was gone.
You could tell it was alarmed but seemed to under stand we were helping it. The way it just layed there I thought it was injured or exhausted. But when it flew it looked totally normal. When it left the pine it went high and way out of sight.
