West Seneca, NY (WBEN) The SPCA serving Erie County is caring for a hawk found frozen in Amherst Wednesday. The hawk was discovered by Amherst Highway employee Tim Boyle on Meadowstream Drive.
The highway department says Boyle brought the hawk into the truck and wrapped it in a blanket to try to warm it up. Animal Control was responded and took the hawk to the SPCA.
"The hawk was covered with ice and snow. He couldn't stand, he was hypothermic. He received an initial assessment and sadly, the hawk has head trauma and visula impairment," says the SPCA's Gina Browning. "Right now, he is in an oxygen tank on fluids and pain meds. It's hard to talk about because the bird is in critical condition."
Browning says there's a healthy population of hawks in WNY, but this hawk appears to be a first year hawk learning to feed itself. "It's possible an impact injury would have caused the head trauma, and then he may have been struck by something or struck something and got stuck in the snow," explains Browning.