A sick hawk opened one state lawmaker’s eyes

NORWALK — After discovering a sick Cooper’s hawk lying outside his Norwalk home last summer, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said his eyes were open to how much humanspread chemicals can affect and disrupt wildlife.

“A lot of times, we speak on policy and intangibles, but this was like right out there for me to see firsthand,” said Duff, D-Norwalk. “So I wanted to bring that story to members of the Environment Committee so they could understand what I saw and hopefully help persuade them to support the bill.”

At the end of August, while taking his dog Molly on a walk, Duff noticed a bird about 10 feet away acting strangely — lying on its back and flapping around — and unable to fly. Recognizing the bird needed help, he called in Christine’s Critters, a bird rescue based in Weston.

“The hawk went into Christine’s Critters; she told me a bunch of times that he was really touch-and-go, and that she wasn’t sure if the hawk would live, and if the hawk lives, it would actually be able to go back out into the wild,” Duff said.

After nine weeks of care, receiving fluids and anti-inflammatory drugs, the hawk was able to return to the wild.

“He looked ready to go,” recalled Christine Peyreigne from Christine’s Critters. “He was eating well and flying well in the flight cage, and it was like, now’s your chance. So out to the wild, he went.”

On Oct 30, 2023, the Cooper’s hawk Duff had found successfully flew the nest, but his impact on the state senator from Norwalk has lasted.

“I testified in front of the Environment Committee in favor of the bill and told them about the story of the hawk in my driveway,” Duff said. “And, you know, the firsthand account, I mean, there’s not a lot of times where, as legislators, we can always point to something so specific and, and something that’s personal.”

On Wednesday, Duff gave his testimony on behalf of a bill that would ban the sale and distribution of secondgeneration anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs, including internet sales.

Chemicals designed to kill rodents also poison birds, including hawks and bald eagles, that survive by preying on mice and rats.

“If they’re eating the mice and the rats and people are using poison, they’re getting poisoned,” Peyreigne said. “There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it.”

“What are we doing to animals and what are we doing to America’s bird?” Duff said.

Duff said he is optimistic about the bill’s prospects but said he wants to would like it to become even stronger.

“We have to be better stewards of our wildlife that we are being right now,” Duff said.

When birds ingest SGARS, “there’s absolutely nothing you can do because it’s a neurotoxin,” Peyreigne said.

Cooper’s hawks tend to eat birds that eat small pests such as bugs, so Peyreigne said the hawk Duff found was likely poisoned from pesticides.

“We do see a lot of Cooper’s hawks that have pesticide poisoning,” she said.