The Red Tail Hawk of Zero G story

[Alex]

A lot of people have been asking me for the link, so I might as well give a little of the background:

On Sunday June 10th, 2007 a group of us (Shane, Marc, Eston, Adam and Alex) went down Zero Gravity canyon located in San Rafael area. It was a great day for a slot hike. It was very hot up on the plateau, but nice and cool in the slot itself. There were quite a few swimming potholes on our way that we had to overcome.

Half way through the slot, the canyon narrows to about a foot or less and has a few drop offs (4 feet or so). We came up to the choke stone and Shane was leading. One of a sudden Shane jumps and screams, right away I thought to myself a rattlesnake just as I saw past him large wings!

This is how we found the bird:



Right away we knew we were in trouble. At first we thought about trying to get the so thought eagle out, but the bird fought back and got deeper into the "keeper hole". It's very tight in there and if we pushed on, we'd have to get right through the bird.

The global decision was made to leave the bird where it was and climb out of the canyon and rappel below it. Basically leaving the bird to Mother Nature to deal with. And so we did....


This is a chapter 2 to this:

http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7301
http://utahbp.com/zerog

Here is the story as I remember it:

Tuesday night Marc's guilt drives him to work the phones. He finds this lady in Price who guilts him into coming down and taking her to the hawk. Marc guilts me into going with him (took the whole 2 mins to guilt me ).

At 7AM Marc is at my house and we are off to my dads to get some fishing nets just in case. At 9:30AM we are picking up the lady named Debby and her assistant Connie at Second Chance rehabilitation center in Price. They pack their cage and gear and we head down to Zero G!

These ladies must love birds a little too much. Marc and I got a 2 hour lecture on birds and more info than both of us could digest But they were nice ladies and kept us occupied.

Around 11:30 AM we get our gear and start down the trail on the North side of the wash in the search of the spot where we have previously exited the canyon.



Let's just say that the main rehab lady (Debby) isn't much of a canyoneer, so the sun did too much work for her and I found a nice alcove for her to hide in the shade and wait for our return. We took Connie and headed down. Marc decided to run ahead and scout the area to see if the bird is still there and it was worth our effort to bring the ladies down there. Sure enough 10 minutes later there were the screams of joy!

So we took Connie and all the gear and hand lined down the sandstone wall.



We were able to drop about 30 yards away from the bird's location. The hawk was able to make itself down the canyon and was almost to the keeper wall, so it did have water as we thought. We got these awesome gauntlet gloves from Debby, got our hand lines, 200 feet of webbing, 200 feet of rope and pull cords, fishing nets, blankets and went off after the beast!



Sadly, Marc and I were so pumped with adrenaline and sweat that we didn't take our cameras into the tight spot where the bird was.

Basically, the slot got very narrow and it opened up a bit at the very bottom. One choice was to stem across and then slowly drop down over the keeper hole, but that would mean dropping down about 20-25 feet. We decided after a long "no you, no you" argument that Alex (me) would go down through the tight squeeze with gauntlet gloves



and Marc (since he is better than me at stemming) stem across and throw the blanket on the bird so I could scoop it.



Well, our plan almost worked like it was planned. Having marc on top gave me a great handhold and Marc held all the gear, including my dad fishing net.






We extended the handle on the net and were able to gently cover the bird with the net! At first we tried to approach the bird, but the poor thing kept backing away deeper into the keeper hole. So the net did wonders for us. I was able to cover the bird with the net and drag it slowly against the wall closer to us. Then marc took over the net while I put the blanket onto the bird inside the net and marc got the bird out of the slot.

As soon as marc and I were back on solid ground there were a couple of joy screams were heard in the slot and a bunch of high fives

The sad part about this whole story, is that we (grown men) were scared senseless of the beast, but as soon as we gave the bird to Connie, she opened the blanket and took the bird out! Marc and I dropped our jaws when we saw that.




Of course after coming to our senses, we couldn't wait to hand hold the bird and pose for more pics! That's why we are there for, right?







After coming over the initial shock and adrenaline rush, we decided to go and check on our other patient, Debby! Marc took the gear and headed up, then throwing a hand line for me and Connie. I man handled the bird and Connie brought up the rear.



Once we made it to the alcove where we left Debby, we showed our precious cargo to her and all the heat exhaustion suddenly went away.



We took a couple of mins to cool off, rehydrate and headed back down to the car. The mood of the party was a lot happier this time and the pace was acceptable by the great canyoneers!



Once we got to the car, Debby did a basic assessment of the bird



Gave it some pain killers and IV



And then let us look at the bird a little closer



Pay attention to the fear still in Marc's eyes. Oh yes we kept our distance!



I was still hesitant in holding the bird, but I overcame my fears!





As you can tell, the Hawk or Eagle as we originally thought wasn't 4 feet tall as we predicted. It was a 2 year old male Red Tail Hawk, about 2 feet long and as stated by Debby, had about 1 day of life left! It was totally dehydrated and exhausted. It had no more energy to fight us or live on. If marc's guilt didn't kick in on time, there would be one less beautiful bird in the sky over the deserts that we so love and adore.

I really appreciate Marc's invitation to come on this unique trip and I think it was the best canyoneering experiences I have ever been to.

Alex

[M00km0nster]

Marc and Alex are my heros

[Iceaxe]

Dang... that thing looked much bigger when it attacked me.

So is the hawk going to be alright?

Did the slot trap it so it couldn't spread its wings and fly as we assumed?

Nice job guys.

[montanablur]

Nice one...

Now maybe we could put together a nice little fund and get Marc a new hat?

[rockgremlin]

Nicely done guys!!! You guys should be on the news! Seriously!

Awesome story!

[Alex]

Ya the hawk should be ok, the lady told us she will call us when the hawk is ready to be released and will allow us to do the deed I guess that means another trip to ZeroG!

She said it will take a couple of weeks for the bird to gain its weight and fully recover.

[stefan]

well done guys! great story.

while there are times when it makes sense to let nature take its course, i subscribe to your altruism here ...
or to use kazak's (oops) term "guilted" altruism

[hesse15]

congratulations guys
that was a very admirable thing that you have done

[marc olivares]

well our ""CLIMB-UTAH" sponsored bird rescue went off without a hitch...
yes Shane we kept all of the receipts of our expenses

thanks for getting this up Alex, i was hammered when i got home and went straight to bed
(i just woke up about an hour ago)

don't really have much to add, other than i could SWEAR the BIRD was HUGE!!! ok, maybe it wasn't so huge

this was one of the single best experiences i've had in a long time.
not only did we learn a ton about "RAPTORS", but the trip couldn't have gone more smoothly.
"the force was definitely w/ us" (thanks Stefan)
i now have some confidence in handling large birds if i ever encounter them in the future.

our biggest concern, as we traveled south, was that the bird would be dead.
we were elated when we found it still alive.
as for teamwork, oh man if couldn't have gotten any better.
Alex and i worked through this like seasoned pros (scared shitless, pros that is)
we we're so afraid of that bird, and exploded in laughter when Connie pulld the bird out of the net and started cuddling w/ it.
talk about emasculating...
guess, i'm not as macho as i thought

the great irony of the trip was after we "rescued" the bird, we then had to "rescue" the bird rescuer... she was spent.
guess she doenst do much hiking in the desert, mid-day, in summer..
oh wait, she's asthmatic and diabetic to boot...???
wish she would have told us that before we left.

thanks again Alex for partnering up w/ me on this, it was great fun.

[gonzo]

I have a little parrot at home who bites me on a regular basis. I've also been bitten by a macaw parrot, and a cockatoo - those b*****ds can bite, and they're mostly vegetarians. (I know a parrot breeder who swears the bigger cockatoos can take off a finger). I wouldn't put my hand near a raptor.

Nice work on the rescue.

[CarpeyBiggs]

What a rad story. Nice work guys.

[Scott P]

....

[fouristhenewone]

you guys are AWESOME! hats off to making that effort to save a beautiful bird.

[Iceaxe]

well our ""CLIMB-UTAH" sponsored bird rescue went off without a hitch...

I think the Circle of Friends will be very happy with what they helped accomplish.

Any chance of getting an invite to the great hawk release?

[nosivad_bor]

Fantastic !

This is one to tell the grandkids for sure

[Alex]

well our ""CLIMB-UTAH" sponsored bird rescue went off without a hitch...

I think the Circle of Friends will be very happy with what they helped accomplish.

Any chance of getting an invite to the great hawk release?

I think everyone who are interested should come, since so many people followed and cared about the story... do I smell another uutah get together?

[marc olivares]

...Any chance of getting an invite to the great hawk release?...

absolutely!

based on what Debby said, it will be a few weeks before the bird is up and running again. she was unsure whether the bird had broken it's tail bone or not and was going to be taking xrays today. if there was a break, it would be a longer recovery.

the birds injuries consisted of some seriously worn down claws.
guess those slot walls act like sand paper...LOL
a few abrasions on it's wings, from trying to open them in the slot.
and a serious case of dehydration.

if the bird is unable to be released back into the wild, due to unrecoverable injuries, the worse case scenario would be that it gets donated to an raptor education program, much like what they have at Tracy aviary. though i'd love to get it back in the wild, i'd feel pretty good about this prospect too.

[Scott Card]

well our ""CLIMB-UTAH" sponsored bird rescue went off without a hitch...

I think the Circle of Friends will be very happy with what they helped accomplish.

Well there is a relief, I thought my 25 bucks went to Shane's beer and women habit.....

[Iceaxe]

Well there is a relief, I thought my 25 bucks went to Shane's beer and women habit.....

Damn.... this is just like in Star Wars episode VI were everyone discovers that Darth Vadar still has a heart.....

[neena_jud]

The whole hawk rescue story is really cool!, now THAT'S a reason to be alive.

Werner Jud, Kentucky caver