Local fire company helps Game Commission rescue hawk from a tree
They definitely didn’t wing this one.
Early Wednesday afternoon, the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company responded to a request by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to assist them on North Pike Road in Winfield Township for a hawk stuck in a tree.
According to Andy Freehling, second assistant fire chief with the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company, the call came from the Game Commission at 1:09 p.m. and the whole situation was wrapped up within 20 minutes.
“Basically the game commission requested us to assist them with a hawk that was about 35 feet up in a tree,” Freehling said. “What it was, was a rope wire from a kite that must’ve gotten tangled in the tree and the hawk must’ve flew into it with its wing and got tangled into it.”
Freehling explained his team got their ladder truck set up and the game warden was able to use a net to secure the bird. They were able to cut more of the kite wire off to free up space.
The Game Commission’s plan was to take the hawk to a “wildlife rehab facility” Freehling said, and if it weren’t for the two entities response to the situation, the hawk might not have been untangled.
“The end of its one wing was caught up, and it was unable to free itself,” Freehling said. “It was going to need some help; it wasn’t going to get down on its own.”
Freehling said he was unsure of the status of the hawk’s wing, but it looked healthy otherwise.
“(The Game Commission) had left some of the string on because they wanted the rehab people to be the ones to do that,” Freehling said. “I would say it has a pretty good chance at making a full recovery.”
