THUNDER BAY – Now more than ever, Jenn Salo believes if you love something to set it free and if it comes back it’s meant to be.
Salo, a local falconer and owner of ThunderBird Wildlife Rescue, was reunited with her beloved red-tailed hawk Sitka this week after the raptor took off from her backyard and disappeared for nearly a month.
“It’s pretty crazy that he’s back a month later. I’ve been talking to other falconers about it and they’ve even said that something like this doesn’t happen too often. Once you’ve lost a bird for this amount of time, it’s wild again for the most part usually,” she said.
“Not my guy.”
Salo has had Sitka since the fall of 2016, when she trapped the then-juvenile red-tailed hawk. Ever since, falconer and hunting partner have developed a special bond that was tested and reaffirmed during the past month.
On the evening of Oct. 23, two-year-old Sitka was outside on his perch. While Salo did not usually leave him unattended, she sat down to have a quick family meal. She came back outside but her hawk was nowhere to be found.
“Devastated doesn’t even come close to what I felt. It was such an awful night that night. There was a storm that night, it was windy as hell,” Salo said.
“I was really nervous for him because when we have ever hunted anywhere close to the city we get mobbed by crows and ravens. I was worried about him. If they get enough of a mob they will actually kill hawks.”
For Sitka, who would fly free while accompanying Salo on horseback rides, to leave and not come back didn’t seem real.
“We hunt usually half an hour to an hour out of town in the bush and I’ve lost sight of him. He’s gone soaring and disappeared above the clouds and he’s always found me again. I was in disbelief that I couldn’t find him and that he couldn’t find me,” she said.
While initially optimistic that he would return home or quickly be found, those hopes slowly waned with each passing day.
“Honestly, it was after Day 16 where I started giving up hope,” Salo said. “It’s over two weeks now. I had been searching night and day, from sunup to sundown, getting other people to look after my kids and getting help with all the rescue animals.”
Salo turned to social media, where she received a steady stream of hawk sightings in and around Thunder Bay. But every time, she knew it wasn’t Sitka. That changed just a few days ago, while she was in southern Ontario and was tagged in a Facebook post with a photo of a hawk. Though the photo was grainy, Salo knew right away that it was her bird.
That brought her to a side street off Broadway Avenue, where a resident reported seeing the hawk.
“My heart was in my throat driving the whole way there, saying please don’t go anywhere. Please don’t go anywhere,” Salo said. “I looked behind me and he was sitting on a post all fluffed up. He was like, ‘Hi, Mom.’”
But getting there and seeing him wasn’t a guarantee that Sitka would return to her side.
“There you are, here I am, finally finding you. It was totally up to him. He could have flown away or he could have just sat there and made me look like an absolute fool,” Salo said of that encounter.
“But he didn’t. I walked towards the pole, smiling at him the whole time, just so happy to see him. If the outcome was that he flew away, then I know he’s OK. I finally saw him.”
Ready with a quail in hand, it was time for the moment of truth. Would Sitka come home, or would he choose to be wild?
“Before it hit the ground he came and flew over my shoulder and just nailed it. Then he didn’t let go. I didn’t let go,” she said.
“I was eventually able to make my way up to him where I slid my glove in and grabbed the quail. He gave me his pissed off, ‘it’s mine’ look. I said ‘step up’ and step up he did. My life is back to normal now and I feel really good about it.”
Despite Salo’s initial concerns, Sitka seemed to do well for himself in the wild. Though he does sport apparent squirrel bites, Sitka put on weight during his adventure and seemed to have no trouble finding food.
Though she expects Sitka will require some re-training, Salo wants to have him out hunting by Christmas.
“I think I’m still in shock,” Salo said. “I love having him back on the fist. My arm feels whole again.”
