STAMFORD, Conn. (WCBS 880) — An injured red-tailed hawk rescued from railroad tracks in Connecticut by a quick-thinking Metro-North train engineer and two MTA Police officers is now flying free again after months of rehabilitation.
Transit officials and animal rescuers celebrated the bird's recovery Thursday as they released it back into the wild at Brinckerhoff Nature Preserve in Redding — far away from trains and major roads.
The hawk's journey back to the wild began on May 11 when engineer Larry Allain brought his Danbury Branch train to a halt after spotting the bird laying on the tracks with an injured wing in Wilton.
The injury left the bird, which had either been hit by a train or had flown into one, unable to fly away to safety.
"I was operating a passenger train full of people and, and I saw something large it almost looked like a chicken. So I slowly brought the train to a stop within probably a foot of it, and I got down and I knew that obviously something wasn't right," Allain said. "It was looking up at me but it wasn't moving."
Allain got back on the train and called the railroad's Operations Control Center to notify them of the situation.
"I notified the conductor right away that I was stopping for a bird and he was like 'What?' I said, 'It's a very large bird,'" Allain recalled.
MTA Police Sgt. Anthony Ferrara and Officer Roman Somko responded to the scene and were able to safely remove the hawk from the tracks.
The bird was checked out at the South Wilton Veterinary Group, where doctors determined it had a fractured ulna in its left wing that would heal naturally without surgery.
The hawk was then taken to Christine's Critters in Weston for rehab.
"[The wing] had to be wrapped in sort of like a cast for 6 to 8 weeks so that way the bones would heal just like with a person, and then after that he needed physical therapy, and so for all this time he's been getting stronger in our flight cages," said Christine Peyreigne, founder of Christine's Critters.
After five months, the hawk's wing has healed completely.
The bird, which was a juvenile at the time of its injury, has matured into an adult, with its signature red tail fully grown.
"For me to watch this bird fly away today was incredible," said Allain.
"He's a very lucky bird and I'm so glad he got to go free," said Peyreigne.