Cooperstown News Bureau

RICHFIELD SPRINGS - A red-tailed hawk is alive today, thanks to the efforts of two town of Richfield brothers.

"We were out four-wheeling Monday, and I thought I saw something fall out of the sky," said Butch Duncan. They found the injured hawk in a hedgerow near county Route 25.

"We went to look and there it was, on the ground, kind of flopping around. You could see it was hurting.

"My first thought was the coyotes'll get it if we leave it here," he said. "I go deer hunting and all, but I couldn't see letting the coyotes get that hawk. I told my brother, Fred, to take his shirt off."

Fred Duncan complied, and they threw his shirt over the female hawk, managing to grab her. Butch drove the all-terrain vehicle and Fred held onto the bird as they crossed the field to their home at 1033 county Route 35.

"She didn't like it at all, almost bit me once," Fred Duncan said.

"We didn't have any money to take care of her, didn't really know what to do, so we went to the trooper barracks," Butch Duncan said.

Sgt. David Segit, who commands the Richfield state police substation, said he'd never seen a red-tailed hawk up close before the brothers walked in with one.

"Now that was a surprise, but those guys were trying to do something good, and we helped them out a little bit," Segit said.

"The police were great," Butch said. "They called every place around until we found a good one to take it."

That place was the Cooperstown Veterinary Clinic on state Route 28 in Oaksville.

The hawk was there Wednesday and doing pretty well, said veterinarian Michael Powers.

"We're feeding her some liver, and she's been eating," he said. "I think there's a damaged nerve in her wing, the nerve that controls how she extends it."

Often an injury like this will come from a collision with electric cables, he said, but there are many other possible causes.

Wednesday morning, the hawk was resting in a large animal cage at the clinic, keeping company with several cats.

"We've had large birds before, and it's amazing how well they do in a situation like this," Powers said.

The prognosis: After a week to 10 days of regaining strength, the bird will be returned to the wild — none the worse for its brief captivity.

Powers said red-tailed hawks are highly intelligent and feed on mice and some slightly larger animals. They have a distinctive screech, one that movie makers often dub in for eagles, he said.

"The eagle doesn't make that noise you always hear when they show them," he said. "That's the sound of a hawk, like this one."

The birds, which are native to this area, weigh about 4 pounds. They look much larger, particularly when their wings are spread, but their bones are hollow and their feathers weigh very little, Powers said.

If you have some good news you'd like to share, please call Managing Editor Cary Brunswick at 432-1000 or (800) 721-1000; e-mail him at cary@thedailystar.com; fax him at 432-5707; or write to him at P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820.