Three baby Red-tailed Hawks found nesting on a faulty light tower at Dragon Stadium in Southlake are safely in the care of a wildlife rescue group.
The birds, which are federally protected, are about two weeks old and cannot fly yet, but the pole they were nesting on needed to be torn down.
“We have some welds that attach to the bottom of the poles, the welds are failing. They're cracking,” said Dr. Derek Citty, assistant superintendent of facilities. “We had an engineer inspect those welds and he determined they wouldn't last the 45 days to get the chicks to a state where they could fly out on their own.”
Citty was one of three people to go up in a crane to help rescue the baby birds as crowds of spectators stood by watching.
“It’s exciting to us,” Peggy Foster said.
“It’s like, you know, part of the family,” Carroll ISD employee Erlinda McIntire added.
The baby hawks parents have lived at the stadium for at least two years.
"It’s always a sad thing when their normal nesting process is interrupted,” said Kathy Rogers of Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation. “But, we certainly raise babies all the time.”
Rogers will care for the chicks in Hutchins until they are old enough to be released back into the wild.
