ARLINGTON — A hawk rescued recently after becoming entangled in a Skagit County raspberry trellis had to be euthanized because its injuries were too severe.
Complications developed with the red-tailed hawk’s foot, and it could not be saved, said Leslie Henry, clinic director at the Sarvey Wildlife Center in Arlington, where the bird was being treated.
The injuries would have prevented the hawk from being able to perch, which would have caused more complications for the bird, she said.
Stu Davidson of Snohomish, the photographer who rescued the bird last month, was disappointed to learn what happened.
“It really shocked me,” he said. “I had high hopes of being able to release him and getting him back where he should be.”
Davidson, 59, was shooting photos on Fir Island near Conway in Skagit County on Presidents Day when he came across the injured bird. The hawk was hanging by its foot from a twine trellis and struggling to get free.
Davidson cut the bird down and then unwrapped the twine from its injured foot. The twine was coiled around many times and deeply embedded in the skin, he said.
When Davidson saw that the bird couldn’t put weight on its injured leg, he wrapped it up and took it home, keeping it overnight. The next day he called Sarvey, which specializes in caring for injured wildlife.
The nonprofit provides a permanent home for animals that recover from injuries or illness but cannot be released into the wild. In this case, though, the injury was too severe, Henry said.
“It was very frustrating. We were holding out good hope for the whole situation,” she said.
Sarvey staff members praised Davidson for taking action to rescue the bird. Usually they ask anyone who finds an injured wild animal to call them first, but in Davidson’s case, he had raised birds all his life and had a sense of what to do, they said.
Davidson, a retired software engineer, is satisfied the Sarvey staff did everything they could to save the hawk.
While he’s sad about the outcome, he’s glad he at least got the bird down from the fence and to a place where it received food, water and care in its last days.
“I felt better that at least I gave him a better way out,” he said. “He would have died a really slow painful death. So I guess that’s my consolation. I probably saved him some pain in the way that he had to go.”
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
