Help look for lost Raptor Center Swanson’s hawk near #DavisCA

Positing this email that I received:

Hi,

The California Raptor Center (located in UCD’s South Campus) lost its education Swainson’s hawk on Wednesday night or Thursday morning during the storm that came through recently. We need help looking for him. Please e-mail Bret at bcstedman if you have any leads.

He can’t survive for very long in the wild. He is virtually blind in one eye and can hardly see through the other, but he can fly. With the strong winds we’ve been having, we have no idea where he might be at this point.

He’s a light-morph Swainson’s hawk. Here’s what he looks like while out for an education/outreach program: https://thetideline.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/swainsons-hawk-2.jpg

One distinguishing characteristic from other Swainson’s hawks that may be visible are the leather anklets he has on both legs. If you get a good look at him, you may also see a bald spot above his right eye.

Thanks!

P.S. Please feel free to distribute this message to any other birding/wildlife/nature groups who could help with the search. The more eyes we have looking for him, the better.

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis View all posts by Jonathan Eisen