Mother-daughter duo share quite a ‘tail’ to rescue young hawk
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MIFFLIN -- Some mothers and daughters bond over shopping and manicures, Rhonda and Grace McLaughlin share a love of snakes and birds of prey.
"I joked with my husband about that," said Rhonda McLaughlin, of Mifflin. "He and my son like to hunt. That's why we live out here, we enjoy the quiet and the outdoors.
"My daughter since day one has loved animals," she added of Grace, 23, who is a biology major and senior at Bloomsburg University. "Over the years, she has gotten more and more into that kind of stuff. We both really love wildlife, feeding the birds and watching them."
A young red-tailed hawk was certainly feeling their love on Saturday, Aug. 26, when it was rescued by the mother-daughter duo after a harrowing 24-hour search.
It all started in the McLaughlin's long driveway at their Juniata County home. When Rhonda's husband, John, was leaving for work on Friday morning, he found a hawk sitting in the middle of the driveway. "John called me and said, 'There's a big bird down here,'" Rhonda recalled. "He knew I would be interested in checking it out."
Rhonda came down the driveway to look for the hawk near Route 35, She saw the hawk walking around then fly into her neighbor Barb Hutchinson's yard where she lost sight of it.
"I saw it again later Friday morning, but I couldn't get closer to it than several yards away, so I wasn't able to catch it," she said.
Rhonda decided to contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Wildlife in Need Emergency Response of Pennsylvania.
"Since it was not acting right, I decided to make some phone calls," she explained of calling the wildlife agencies. "Both concurred that it would be best to wait until Saturday morning to look for it, since it may just have been trying to learn to fly."
Rhonda waited until Grace came home from school on Saturday then set out again and resumed the search. They eventually found the hawk alive but disoriented.
"My daughter found it near my neighbor's yard," Rhonda said. "It only took her two minutes. I'm surprised she saw the white (feathers) in really tall, thick weeds. It was a miracle she found it."
The wildlife agencies suggested the McLaughlins catch the hawk in a tote. "We waited until this morning in case it was just trying to learn to fly," Rhonda said. "Its condition was worse, and we were able to walk right up to it."
They placed the tote on the ground, covered the hawk with a blanket and gently nudged it into the tote. They placed an old screen that Rhonda had used previously when harvesting onions to cover the opening.
Grace filled an empty squirt bottle with water and attached a tube to the end of it, attempting to hydrate the young hawk.
A volunteer from Wildlife in Need met the McLaughlins at IHOP in Mifflintown and transported the hawk to Centre Wildlife Rehab in Port Matilda, Centre County.
"We waited and prayed for word that it was going to be OK," Rhona said. "We're all hoping it was just dehydrated."
To date, she hasn't received any updates on the hawk's condition.
Fledgling birds can get dehydrated when their parents leave them to learn how to fly. "They don't always get the nutrition they need," Rhonda added. "Hopefully, that's all that's wrong with it."
Rhonda is thankful for her daughter's love of nature and her quick thinking, which saved the hawk's life.
"Grace is a biology major interested in wildlife rehabilitation and just had her first class in ornithology," Rhonda said. "I was so glad for her knowledge and past experience working with animals. She did an amazing job finding it and getting it in the tote."
Rhonda was also grateful for her neighbor for letting them search her yard and for helping them to do so.
"Somehow, I end up getting pulled into adventures with both (snakes and birds)," she added, "because being outside with Grace is always interesting."
Until their next escapade.