A red-tailed hawk is likely feasting on small rodents in Mundy Park this week when it was released from captivity after spending more than month rehabilitating from a head injury.
The raptor didn’t need to be told twice to flee the crate as Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL) volunteer Carol Norris urged her “baby” to fly.
It quickly spread its wings and rose into the air from a grassy area near the city’s public works building before perching on a cedar branch and watching the crowd of well-wishers below.
“It’s my high, it’s my drug,” said Norris, who helps out with driving, education and other tasks at OWL's rehabilitation centre in Delta.
The Coquitlam woman said she loves to be able to release injured owls, hawks and other raptors in front of members of the public in the hopes that they become more attached to local wildlife and the need to protect them.
Norris is particularly concerned about the use of rodenticides, poisons used to kill rats that can also sicken the raptors that eat the rodents.
“I want people to be involved. I’m pushing the message ‘No poison,’” Norris said.
Several employees of the Coquitlam animal shelter and the public works department were on hand for the release.
The red-tailed hawk was taken to the rehab facility on Sept. 18 with a head injury after it flew into a vehicle driving along Lougheed Highway near Schoolhouse Street.
City workers who were working in the area saw the incident and called OWL, which came and picked up the hawk.
It’s a female, less than two years old, and will likely find plenty of food — and other hawks — in Mundy Park, where it will likely make its home, Norris said.
