A Hawk In Hand!

I spent most of today volunteering at Hawk Ridge. The high temperature today was 41 and the winds were 18 mph. To top that off the sky drizzled down on us so I had to wear my rain coat over my parka. I was cold most of the day. I was not cold when I got invited (for the first time) to walk down to the banding station and retrieve a hatch year female red tailed hawk. I watched the bird banders lure in the raptors with starlings on a string. The banders would pull on those strings now and then like an angler jiggles a fishing pole. When the hawk was ready to go back up to the public area of Hawk Ridge she was put in an empty Folgers coffee can with the yellow feet and tail sticking out. I put the can in the brook of my left arm and put my gloved hands around the hawk's feet. Oh, the thrilling joy of holding a hawk. We left the banding station and walked the ten minute walk back to the public area. By the time I got back I was sweating with the exercise and the adrenaline. I handed the hawk off to Julia, one of the naturalists. Here is the hawk just after I removed the coffee can.

Here is the hawk right before she was released. I wondered how the hawk was mentally processing this adventure. Was it comparable to being abducted by aliens? With the unpleasant weather we had very few visitors today.