MARIES COUNTY— As Maries County Conservation Agent Tex Rabenau and World Bird Sanctuary volunteer, Pat Segasture, carried the box containing a red-shouldered hawk across the parking lot at the Edge restaurant and toward the woods, it began making clear whistled calls. 

Was the female hawk calling for its mate? Was the mate close by to hear it? That would be the best ultimate outcome but one not under human control. All hoped for the best possible future for the red-shouldered hawk.

This story began in early December 2021 when Agent Rabenau received a phone call from someone who was a customer or a passerby at the Edge restaurant, located along Highway 63 north of Vienna and across the street from the Maries County plant of  Quaker Window Products Company. The caller said a hawk was tangled in wire behind the restaurant and was in distress. Rebenau said he arrived on the scene and found the hawk tangled in baling wire. There was a pipe in the wooded area behind the Edge with the wire around it. The wire had trapped the hawk. Rebenau said he released the hawk from the wire, but it was badly injured. He immediately took the hawk to the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri. 

He kept in contact with the bird sanctuary about the hawk’s health status. On an early phone call he was told the tissue around the hawk’s leg was badly damaged and they were trying to get it to regrow. Segasture said at first they thought the poor female hawk might lose the leg. 

Rebenau said red-shouldered hawks are not common in this part of the country. The red-tailed hawks are the ones locals see the most. 

The sanctuary used time and patience to heal the hawk. Segasture said “during the first month she was stubborn” and would not eat on her own. Instead they hand-fed the hawk which healed and was well enough to be released back into the wild.

Rebenau was pleased to be part of it. He’d taken a couple of injured eagles to Columbia for veterinary care, but neither had survived. This red-shouldered hawk was his first experience with being the person who saved it from the baling wire and the sanctuary healed and cared for it until it was ready to be released. This was done in the same area where it was found wrapped up in the wire. They released it into the woods behind the Edge on the afternoon of Feb. 2. 

It didn’t stay around to say thank you. Once the blue box was opened by Rebenau, the hawk quickly burst from it, flying fast to a tall tree about 50 feet away. 

“It’s amazing work they do to rehab these raptors,” Rebenau said about the World Bird Sanctuary, which operates by donations. “It’s amazing getting it back to where it can be released.” He said the red-shouldered hawks keep their mating partners for a long time. “It’s mate is probably still around here waiting for her.” 

Segasture said, “Release is the best part. It makes my heart feel big.” She said this Maries County hawk was hurt badly and in pain for a long time. It is good to see it be able to go back to the wild. “It’s like coming home,” she said. 

The World Bird Sanctuary likes to return the birds to the wild within a 20-mile radius of where they were picked up. This is because the mate may still be in the area and it is the territory the birds had claimed before the accident. 

Rebenau said he wants to help animals and help preserve Missouri’s resources. These moments when he gets to release a bird back into its habitat are one of the reasons he loves his job as a Missouri Conservation Agent.