Dive-bombing hawk taken for retraining

A hawk that was captured after terrorising villagers for a month is now being retrained at an aviary, a falconer has said.

Steve Harris, 40, managed to trap the Harris's hawk on Thursday after it landed in his garden in Flamstead, Hertfordshire, using a cage loaned by local falconer Wayne.

The bird had attacked an estimated 50 people since the start of March, sometimes drawing blood and sending one man to hospital.

Wayne, 58, who declined to give his last name, said: "I just need a few days to calm him down."

Wayne said the non-native South American bird "always seemed to be one step ahead of us" and he was "an emotional wreck trying to catch him".

He said the hawk had been on the loose long before its attacks started.

"It's a captive-bred bird that a falconer somewhere has lost. He's been wild for a long, long time – he's been seen in the surrounding areas for over a year now," Wayne said.

Authorities are still unsure who owns the bird.

"We haven't got a clue and I shouldn't think anyone is likely to come forward," Wayne added.

Speaking about the bird's unusual behaviour, Wayne said: "He was nesting so he was probably hormonal; territorial. It could be any one of those things.

"He's not nasty at all: you can stroke him, poke him, pick him up, do what you like.

"He is a lovely bird. He just doesn't like anybody; he thinks he's been tormented. I know he's been tormenting people himself."

Wayne, who has been working with birds for 30 years, said his first priority was to stabilise the hawk.

"He's had a bath today. He's fat as a barrel, so he hasn't been fed today. He'll have a little bit of food tomorrow and I'll slowly bring his weight down.

"I'm spending time so he can trust me. He thinks everyone is the enemy.

"He'll be trained in such a way as he won't do this again."

Wayne said he would not put the hawk in a zoo or aviary.

"I want him to be flown. He will end up with a falconer and be looked after properly. He's not an animal to be put in a cage and looked at," he said.

"He needs a special person who can donate all their time to him."

He admitted it would be hard to hand over the hawk to someone else "after a few months, because I'll fall in love with him - which I have".

But he added: "If I can find a good home that will treat him as well as I will, then I'll let him go."

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