This male redtail hawk was found by Rick Riedel on North Road, Greenville WI around February 15, 2003. Dean Mielke, a volunteer for the Feather Rehabilitation Center was called to pick up the hawk and took him to Animal Medical Center, Appleton WI where he was examined by Dr. Marty, who could find no specific injury to the bird. He was brought back to the Feather for rest and rehabilitation.

For the first 2 weeks he was in a hospital cage, where he would just stand with his wings out and eyes closed. Fisher would also put him on a heating pad for the first few days. When he started to eat on his own, he was put back into the hospital cage but started to get very wild.

In the middle of March, he was put outside in an 8 x 10 pen. He would eat on his own, but was very unhappy in a pen. He would fly into the sides of the pen, ballistic like and started to really mess up his feathers. As time went on he would not kill his own food, was still wild and unruly in his pen, damaging his own feathers. It was decided to hold him until he went through a complete molt which would not be done until the end of August.

When the molt was over he was still very wild and still damaging his feathers. He was then put into a 40 foot cage away from all contact with people and still continued to fly into the sides of his cage.

He did start killing his own food and the decision was made to release him on November 13, 2004. He was banded (# 877-91303)and released back at the same area he was found, by Rick, the person who had found him, along with a group of very caring North Road neighbors, who came out to watch the release. Upon his release he was confronted by a pair of adult red tails. The male bird went into a stoop and hit him in the tree he sat in. We watched mortified, that we were going to see the end of his story before our very eyes. The pair flew off and he actually ended up flying away in the same direction. That was the last we saw of him. When we left we drove down a side road and spotted the pair, but did not see the single hawk.

Pat Fishers philosophy in a case like this is: I hate to put out a bird that is not in top condition, but he can't stay here forever. I don't know if he would make it with the condition his feathers are in. I do know one thing, I will not kill him, I will release him and let him take his chances in his world first.