'It was obvious he had been hit by a car'
EUGENE, Ore. - I saw him standing in the roadway as I drove south on Interstate 5 six weeks ago.
On Friday, I held out my hands - and the bird flew free.
The red-tailed hawk came into my life on the onramp near Albany, seriously injured.
I protected my hands with a gym bag and carried him to the shoulder and eventually rolled him up and took him to the Cascade Raptor Center, where they nursed him back to health. I don't know what I would have done otherwise.
"It was obvious he had been hit by a car," said Louise Shimmel with the Cascade Raptro Center. "He didn't have any broken bones, but there was an odd change to his heart on the X-ray."
He is all better now. The hawk with no name - rehab birds don't get names at the Raptor Center - took flight Friday morning.
We were hoping he would land on a limb for a parting picture.
He had a different ideas. In a flash of feathers, he was gone.
But it's good to know he's back in the air and already raising a ruckus.
