FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Hawk Day at Frozen Head

[Arthur_McDade@xxxxxxx]

Yesterday I picked up a rehabiltated female Red-tailed hawk at the Clinch
River Raptor Center and brought it to Frozen Head State Park for release
back into the wild. I had taken the hawk to the center over a month ago at
the request of our local TWRA agents (they had asked us at the national
park site where I work to assist). Katie Cottrell at the Center does such a
great job with birds, and she had this Red-tailed ready to get back into
the woods. The bird was markedly improved; when I had taken her to the
Center over a month ago, the bird was listless and lethargic, not even
putting up a fight when I put her in the transport box--not good signs.
Yesterday, she was feisty and anxious, clawing at the box during the twenty
mile trip from Oak Ridge to Frozen Head (Frozen Head is in the original
territory of the bird before it got injured).

We released the hawk with the blessing of TWRA in the state park and it
flew off and perched in a tree to get its bearings. Within a couple of
minutes, a mob of crows took to harassing the hawk. From a gaggle of
green-clad park ranger/warden types on the ground to a mob of crows in the
air, for a bird of prey being released from captivity there is just no such
thing as peace and quiet, it seems. We all hoped the hawk would fare well.

Later that afternoon I returned to Frozen Head for an after-work hike,
which I do often.  As I hike, I usually get to hear some barred owls
calling in the shadowy coves of the park as dusk approaches. Yesterday, I
looked for the Red-tailed, of course, in and around the release site, but
didn't see her. I was treated, however, to seeing a Kestrel perched on a
wire. My "hawk day" was capped off by seeing a Red-shouldered hawk launch
off a telephone wire and pounce on something in a wet area just off the
road twenty yards or so in front of me as I drove out the long valley west
of the entrance to the park on my way home. It made me realize what an
array of birds-of-prey can be found in and around Frozen Head State Park
and Natural Area in Morgan County, Tennessee.

Arhur McDade
Wartburg, TN
























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