Hawk survives collision with truck in Langley, B.C. with tiny scratch
Bird of prey wound up embedded in grill of truck
A red-tailed hawk that collided with a truck driving 110 km/h in Langley, B.C. escaped with a tiny scratch on its beak.
The Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (O.W.L.) got a call to rescue the bird of prey on Sunday around 5:20 p.m. PT.
"A gentleman was driving on a a highway and he hit a red-tailed hawk that went immediately through his front grill, causing a 10 cm hole and he was then embedded behind the grill," said Mindy Dick, a bird care staffer at O.W.L.
She says one of the volunteers was able to retrieve the bird from the grill.
"You would think that with an impact like that it would be devastating," she said. "But believe it or not, the hawk was perching comfortably on a wire."
She says the hawk was bright-eyed when he was brought in and did not appear to be suffering from any type of trauma.
"He came away with a tiny scrape below his lower beak on the right side, but that's it," Dick said. "How do you survive that with just a scratch?"
The juvenile will remain in care for a few weeks under observation before it is released back into the wild.