Freed bird! Cops rescue hawk stuck in truck bumper

A young red-tailed hawk owes its life to a couple of alert Nassau County Police Marine Bureau officers who spotted the bird stuck to the front of a truck Wednesday and rescued it.

The officers were headed to work at about 6:20 a.m., police said, when they saw the bird fighting to free itself from the bumper of a black Dodge Ram 1500 parked near the intersection of Merrick Road and Buffalo Avenue in Freeport.

The two officers stopped, freed the bird, and took it with them to Marine Bureau headquarters at Bay Park in East Rockaway.

The two then notified Volunteers for Wildlife in Locust Valley, who came to the base and brought the hawk back to their wildlife center for treatment of unspecified injuries.

Police said that during the rescue, the driver returned to the truck but had been unaware of the bird strike.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”