This Red Tailed Hawk was brought to RAPTOR by the Hamilton County SPCA on October 17th of 2003. Ginny Fantetti brought it to Paul Levitas, DVM, of the Animal Hospital on Mt. Lookout Square to have a torn crop repaired. Dr. Levitas was assisted by veterinary technician Kim Moore and RAPTOR member Ginny Fantetti (shown holding the birds legs.)

The paperwork accompanying the bird described the crop damage as 'the bird's insides coming out' but in fact the witness was merely seeing the bird's latest meal through the tear! The hawk, an immature female, also appeared to have a damaged wing ... an X-ray showed no fracture, but the bird was held over winter due to some weakness in the wing.

On March 20th, 2004 at 11:30 AM the bird was released at Winton Woods park, not far from RAPTOR's headquarters. She took to the air, perched in a tree for a few minutes, then took off, circling for a while before disappearing.

She was reported an hour or so later in the median of I-275 ... as being 'down'. She wasn't down, she was on prey ... with a full crop! (RAPTOR members supplied the positive ID.)

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Photos by Ken Phillips, Jr.