A young red-shouldered hawk had a lucky crash recently that left him floating in a swimming pool unscathed, then rescued by a resident and a police officer.
Rainer Henkel was working outside his home in Clovis, Calif., when the hawk dropped into his pool.
The bird managed to pull itself out, but fell into the water two more times as it tried to fly away. After its third crash, Henkel gently scooped the hawk out of the pool to prevent a drowning.
“He looked at me and I looked at him. It was funny,” Henkel said. “He was not afraid at all. I did pet him a little bit, and then I got a little towel and dried him off and he liked that. Then I sent Clovis Police Department a Twitter message about what to do.”
The department shared animal service information and sent a police officer.
Henkel thought the hawk might be one of the red-tailed hawk chicks that recently learned to fly under the watchful eye of a police camera on top of the Clovis water tower.
But a bird expert and Fresno Wildlife Rehabilitation Service, said the pool bird is actually a red-shouldered — not red-tailed.
As Henkel and his 13-year-old daughter, Aimee, waited for police, they used a spray bottle to squirt water into the hawk’s beak. They caught those moments on video.
“That face!” Aimee exclaimed as the hawk opened its mouth to drink. “Maybe we should feed him.”
Hawk: “Squeak squeak.”
Aimee: “Bless you.”
Rainer: “Gesundheit.”
The bird wasn’t interested in a cracker that Aimee offered, but was fond of playing with a red squeaky dog toy.
Henkel described the bird as having a “mean face” but a friendly personality — despite the occasional pecks at his hands and feet. The hawk felt so comfortable with the Henkels that it napped for around half an hour.
“It was great,” Henkel said. “It was my first close encounter with a wild bird and he was so nice.”
The police officer who arrived was surprised by the bird’s mellowness. The officer transported the hawk to the department’s animal services facility, where the bird spent the night because it was after business hours. Early Tuesday afternoon, the hawk was taken to Fresno Wildlife Rehabilitation Service.
A volunteer from the nonprofit said the hawk appears to have a sensitive foot but is otherwise uninjured. The hawk is expected to be released into the wild soon.
“In the spring and summertime, you see more birds like this … it just may not be strong enough to fly yet,” said Ty Wood, a Clovis police spokesman.
Birds have recently received a lot of support from Clovis police. The department shared videos on social media of the water-tower red-tailed hawk family, along with video of an officer stopping traffic so a family of geese could cross a road.
Henkel shared his hawk encounter with neighbors in the Sierra Bicentennial Park area via the Nextdoor app.
“Need to get this guy healthy and flying, so he can start thinning out the rodent population,” commented one person.
“That’s awesome,” wrote another. “They are beautiful birds. Had one last year enjoy his lunch in our backyard. I think it was a dove.”
Aimee told her dad she misses the hawk.
Henkel said, “I hope one day he will show up again and say hi.”
