Year: 2000
This juvenile 'Io (Native Hawaiian Hawk) was found limping on the driveway of my Hawaiian parents' house, with a bullet lodged in his wing.
He was gathered up and taken to a wonderful doctor who specializes in birds, where she removed the bullet and gave him to a local falconer to recuperate.

Several weeks later, the falconer brought him back to the house to be released into the same area. An amazing, emotional sight to see him take to the air again.
For several years we spotted him in the area, hunting, and roosting nearby in a stand of Ohi'a...

This shot was taken just before release, with my first digital camera, an Olympus with a 2mp sensor. How the technology has progressed in the last 13 years!

Though not a high-quality image, it brings back wonderful memories of making right what some careless hunter made wrong...