When parts of Illinois were pummeled by record-sized hail stones, along with tornados earlier this week, a turkey vulture was one of the victims.
It is now on the mend at Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation in Barrington.
The bird they’re calling the Kankakee County Turkey Vulture was found badly injured after the storm passed.
Two women involved in wildlife rescue, Dawn and Merikay, made the discovery, while dealing with damage to their own property.
“They picked it up, they put it in a box, they contacted us,” said Dawn Keller with the rehab facility.
She said it was “really sad looking, you know, especially since being beaten up by ostensibly baseball-plus-sized hail.”
The turkey vulture appeared dead in a photo taken at the time and posted on the Flint Creek Facebook page.
The women woman drove it to Oak Lawn where someone else who works with Flint Creek, Jerry, took the bird the rest of the way to the rehabilitation facility in Barrington.
“He was really rough, I mean, when I opened the box that night, he arrived just after 10 p.m., I didn’t even think he was alive at first," Keller said. "And then when I picked him up I could tell he was still breathing.”
She had praise for those involved in getting the injured bird to her.
“If they had not gone through that effort to get him up here that night I doubt that he would be alive,” she said.
The vulture is being treated for head and body trauma and multiple wing fractures.
Keller said its standing and vocalizing, making a guttural growling sound.
A good sign, she told us.
Turkey vultures are scavengers.
They’re fairly large birds, with a wingspan of up to six feet.