By the time you see this newsletter, the 2023 Pendleton Round-Up will be in the record books. For BMW it was a fairly quiet week. Most of the excitement was on Tuesday evening when we received a call from OSP dispatch that there was an injured hawk at the I-84 airport exit just west of Pendleton.

The bird had collided with the air cleaner on a semi and was caught in the device. It was dark by the time I arrived. The hawk was on the ground being supervised by two State Policemen. It didn’t take long to get her in a box and back to the clinic.  The photo above was taken by Bethany, the truck driver whose truck the hawk collided with. Her boyfriend Chandler was driving the truck in front of Bethany. He pulled over and removed the hawk from the air cleaner.

There was blood in the hawk’s mouth so we decided to let her rest overnight before anesthetizing her for a more thorough exam and radiographs. We found no injuries. After a few days of fluids and anti-inflammatories (she had been hit by a truck!) we moved her out to a fight pen.

She is eating well and flying well. The plan is to release her this week.