Subject: [Tweeters] FW: Salem Red Tail trapped in a basement, & freed
Date: Nov 2 09:10:40 2004
From: Li, Kevin - Kevin.Li at METROKC.GOV


Hawk set free after plunge into basement pipe

The bird is unhurt in its downtown Salem exploit

TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ | STATESMAN JOURNAL

November 2, 2004

A red-tailed hawk chasing pigeons in downtown Salem got a peek at the inner
workings of a boiler room Monday.

The female hawk entered a chimney pipe on the roof of the Statesman Journal
building and found her way into the basement utility room.

Gene Doss, 33, a maintenance worker at the Statesman Journal, discovered the
trapped predator about 10:30 a.m. while emptying the contents of a wet
vacuum into a drain in the room.

"I heard a noise from the pipe -- from when he fell down the pipe," Doss
said. "I heard this clunk."

Doss said that after he called his manager for help, the bird flew out of
the pipe -- and directly at him.

"It was so scared, and I didn't know what it was going to do," he said with
a laugh. "I left the wet vac in there, and I went to (my co-worker) and
said, 'If you want the wet vac, you are going to have to go get it
yourself.'"

By the time Reva Lux of the Salem Wildlife Rehabilitation Association
arrived about noon, the hawk had stirred up years-old dust bunnies from the
many pipes running across the ceiling and knocked boxes off shelves. Lux
wasn't surprised to see the hawk.

"She's probably the same girl I've rescued before," Lux said. "She likes to
hunt pigeons downtown."

After several tries, Lux threw a sheet over the hawk's head. The hawk calmed
down as soon as she couldn't see.

"She feels quite fat," Lux said while she checked the stomach area. "Let me
check her wings and make sure she didn't do anything."

The diagnosis: A healthy bird in a bad situation.

Lux carefully carried the sheet-wrapped bird to the alley behind the
building between Chemeketa and Court streets NE. She set the hawk down on
the asphalt and pulled off the sheet.

In her confusion, the hawk flew right at Lux's legs before taking to the
roof above Maxine's on Chemeketa Street NE.

Rehabilitators with the Salem association hope the bird stays out of
trouble.

"They are pretty focused when they are after prey, so it is possible to get
themselves in the same fix if that's what they are doing," said Karen Costa,
a birds-of-prey rehabilitator with the association. "Survival is a pretty
strong instinct."

Costa rehabilitates about 100 birds each year.

"Broken wings are fairly common," she said. "Quite a few birds are hit by
cars ... In wintertime, I often get in starving birds."

Still, it is unusual for a bird to be found in such a predicament and not
need special care, she said.

"This is a real success story," she said.

bcasper at StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6994