What was to be a leisurely ride home from Florence turned into a winger of a day for Pearsall Smith of Mount Pleasant.
As he was traveling down Highway 17 back into town, he watched a red-tail hawk swoop overhead, and into a ditch.  The bird dove straight down, scooped up a very large rat and held tightly to it in his talons.
But the endurance of his take off, and the momentum in which he was flying upward, pushed him into the unintended path of Smith’s Jeep Wagoneer.
“When I saw the bird, I saw the rat in its talons. It was quite a large and beautiful bird,” Smith said.
“I was going about 45 to 50 mph and I didn’t have time to react,” he said. “ And it saw me and at the last minute she flared to get out of the way and that’s when she smacked into the grill.”
Smith drove down the road a short distance and pulled over, realizing the bird was stuck in his grill.
“I thought the bird was dead, and I love hawks and I hunt so I’m not squeamish. I was just going to pull off the dead bird and throw it in the woods. But when I walked around my truck I saw that this thing was very alive,” he said.
Smith said the hawk was stuck in the grill by the tail feathers and the impact was so magnificent that it broke his front grill.
“I started looking around and I had no gloves and I was not about to try and capture this thing. I started thinking of The Centers for Birds of Prey and I called my wife and she gave me the number; they are phenomenal. They sent over Mary Pringle from the Isle of Palms who arrived in less than 10 minutes,” Smith said.
“She got there, threw on her  gloves; grabbed the thing like it was a little puppy and put it in a cardboard container. I was just amazed watching those talons dig into her gloves.”
The hawk is a juvenile red-tail. The bird is now at the clinic with bruises and a fractured radius and ulna, but is a very large healthy hawk otherwise, according to Pringle, a longtime volunteer for the center.
“We are so lucky to have such a great facility that is able to take in these beautiful birds like that,” Smith said.
“Otherwise what would you do with it? I imagine you’d toss it off to the side of the road and hope for the best. I am certain this bird  would have died had she not picked it up.”
“We get calls from all over the state,” Pringle  said.
She said volunteer drivers from South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina are dispatched to the call and the caller is instructed on keeping the bird safe until they get there.
Drivers are strictly volunteer and donate their time and gasoline, she said.
Pringle has responded to dozens of calls like this one and oftentimes the birds are stunned from the impact and quite docile which makes them easier to catch.
“Wild birds are defensive and  will always try to get away,” she said. “Birds are terrified of people and will fly away as soon as they possibly can.”
A towel, a blanket or box is the best way to secure them until help arrives.
“Sometimes it is not safe for birds to go back into the wild and their injuries need to be at least examined and very often treated at the medical center,” Pringle said.
Commonly Pringle and company are  called because large birds like osprey and eagles hit power lines the wrong way and get an electric shock. And even though it is against the law, people are still out there shooting birds of prey. “Most bird injuries are related to people,” Pringle said.
Females are larger than males in the raptor world. The bird Pringle rescued last week was quite large.
“The bird was just hanging from the grill and was defensive but I had welding gloves and know how to handle birds safely,” she said.
“Having a professional respond is for their protection and yours. The key is to get them as quickly and safely as possibly into a carrying box so they can’t get loose.”
After that, it’s Pringle’s job to make sure the bird is settled and calm so it won’t die from the stress of being at the clinic.
X-rays of the bird were taken the second day after admission and blood was drawn to determine if there were any other problems. At this point Pringle believes the wing is fractured in three places but the prognosis is still guarded on that, she said.
“There may be some internal bleeding, but her blood values are improving. And the fracture itself is fixable,” she said. “At this point I don’t know what is going to happen.”
Doctors at the clinic have consulted with a local veterinarian to work toward setting the fracture.
“Birds have hollow bones and very often you can put a pin through the bone to stabilize it while it heals,” Pringle said.
Her surgery and bone setting  was performed by Dr. Jose Biascochea of Mt. Pleasant even though the rest of her medical care and recovery has been conducted by the staff and volunteers and The Center for Birds of Prey.
The center is open to the public Thursday through Saturday. The Center for Birds of Prey is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that relies extensively on membership contributions, corporate sponsorship, and  volunteer staff. All contributions to the Center for Birds of Prey are tax-deductible, as provided by law. To contribute call  971-7474 to charge your contribution to your credit card.

(Sully Witte can be reached at editor@moultrienews.com. Comment on this story at www.moultrienews.com)