Cooper’s hawk goes hungry at Woody’s Dewey Beach

A strange sight greeted Harry Wilson  the morning of Aug. 12, while he was doing his rounds at Surfrider Condominiums in Dewey Beach.

“I saw something on the deck,” Wilson said. “It looked like a pile of sweatshirts someone dropped. I got closer and, whoa! It was a big bird. Not what I was expecting to see.”

The bird was very pretty, Wilson said, with stripes on its tail.

“I knew it wasn’t an osprey, but I wasn’t sure what it was,” he said.

About the same time, Woody’s Dewey Beach Bar & Grill owner Jimmy O’Conor arrived to start his day. O’Conor said he first thought the bird was an osprey.

“It was very weird to see him sitting there when I pulled up to work,” O’Conor said. “He was just standing there, flapping his wings.”

O’Conor said they put caution tape near the area to keep people away, and Donna and Harry Wilson called Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc. 

“They jumped in the car from Newark and came right down. I don’t think humans get that kind of care around here,” Wilson said with a chuckle.

The impromptu rescuers wrapped the bird in a towel and placed it in a box, and the Wilsons kept it in their home until Tri-State responders arrived.

“He went right into the box and just sat there, like he knew we were there to help him,” O’Conor said.

Wilson said he has contacted Tri-State before. “We always try to nurse birds back to health. We’ve had birds, even a baby deer in the office,” he said.

Tri-State representatives identified the bird as a Cooper’s hawk, O’Conor said. 

“I never heard of one before,” he mused. “They said he was probably dive-bombing food, ran into the building and stunned himself.”

Tri-State Bird Rescue Clinic Programs Director Andrea Howey-Newcomb said the juvenile hawk was admitted Aug. 12 as a suspected window-impact patient.

“It is not uncommon to have these high-speed predators collide with windows or screens while chasing their flighted prey,” she said by email Aug. 20.  

Howey-Newcomb said the organization is unsure of the bird’s gender, as they would need to measure the hawk to confirm. This is only done if they fit the bird with a U.S. Fish & Wildlife metal band prior to release, she said.

The hawk was dehydrated, dull, and exhibited bruising and swelling over the shoulder, likely due to the impact with the window, Honey-Newcomb said.  

“The bird also showed some eye trauma, which it is currently being treated for,” she said. “We are cautiously optimistic about the recovery of this bird but understand that their vision and flight need to be perfect in order to release the bird back out into the wild.”

The veterinarian and wildlife rehabilitation team continues to monitor the bird’s recovery and treatment plan, Howey-Newcomb said.  

According to the Audubon Society, Cooper’s hawks are medium-sized birds that feed mostly on smaller birds and other animals they hunt by stealth before attacking. They are roughly the size of a large crow or mallard duck. 

Just a couple days after the encounter, O’Conor’s wife Anne Marie snapped a photo of a very familiar-looking large bird on his car at home. At the time, O’ Conor was unsure if the rescued hawk had already been released. 

“It looked like the same bird,” he said. “I thought, maybe it’s him come back to thank me or its mate, come to look for him.”