One March morning, Harv Ames heard a thump come from outside the bedroom window of his Hancock home. Then there was another.
It didn’t sound like the blue jays that had been pecking at the decorative roof underneath his second story window for days on end. This sound had more power behind it. As Ames peered out the window, he surveyed his large deck and caught a movement inside his screen porch. A red-tailed hawk had made its way in – but clearly could not find its way out.
The hawk must have seen what looked like a bite to eat, said Harris Center land program coordinator and hawk enthusiast Eric Masterson, and made an attempt for its next meal. Masterson said from pictures it was an adult red-tailed hawk, but identifying if it was male or female was too difficult given their subtle differences.
Ames takes the cover off the 14-foot diameter circle porch well in advance of winter – like clockwork after its collapse during the Halloween snowstorm of 2011 – and doesn’t put it back on till the spring. The hawk made its way through an opening in the top and wasn’t having much success trying to gain the altitude needed to get out the way it came in.
“He did try, but couldn’t catch enough air,” Ames said.
For a hummingbird, removing itself through the opening would be easy. For an adult red-tailed hawk, though, flying straight up like a helicopter is not their strong suit, Masterson said.
“It’s more difficult,” he said. “Could it have gotten out on its own? There’s a good chance no. I could foresee that bird not being able to vertically fly out.”
It was a good thing for the hawk that Ames and his wife Doreen were home. It was 9:40 a.m. on March 20 when the thumps were first heard. They went outside and realized they had to get the door open to the screen porch for the hawk to make its return to nature. But with close to a foot of snow and ice built up, they could only kick away enough to open the door a foot.
Ames felt it was enough and began trying to coax his newest visitor toward the opening. The hawk chose the long way, and Ames walked slowly behind it to help shepherd it toward freedom. Going that way had its own set of challenges, as the screen porch rests right on the edge of his 1,700 square foot deck, so Ames had to hold on to the top of the six and a half foot screen panels, inching his way above a three-foot drop.
“I had to get it over there to see the opening,” Ames said.
As the adult hawk approached the opening, Ames saw the moment it realized a way out.
“You could see that it saw something. Something more clear than it would have been seeing before,” Ames said. It hopped through the opening, readied for flight and flew to a tree branch about 50 feet away – where it remained for a half-hour before retreating deeper into the forest.
But that wasn’t the last time the Ames’s would see the rescued hawk. A short while later, the hawk reappeared about 60 feet away from their kitchen window as they made breakfast and remained for 45 minutes. Ames estimated he took 30 to 40 pictures.
“He didn’t move at all, just sitting right on that branch,” Ames said. “Then he just took off and we don’t know where he went.”
Ames said he’s not in the habit of anthropomorphizing animals, but said it’s hard to explain why the bird returned other than to say thanks.
Masterson said there is no evidence to suggest that birds would do something like that and it’s easy for people to think that way. He offered an alternative rationale for its return close to the home.
“It probably came back for the reason it was there in the first place,” Masterson said – food.
Masterson said that the Ames absolutely did the right thing in aiding the hawk to freedom. If it appeared injured though, calling an expert in animal rehabilitation is the route to take. He also said this is a good lesson for others to be aware of a potential similar hazard for birds at their homes. It’s best to close up any openings where birds can become stuck.