Tales from the grille: Hawk recovering after getting stuck in Chevy truck grille on Interstate 75

Usually a pickup grille will play host to a collection of dead bugs and butterflies—but a live hawk?

According to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Widlife (CROW), a driver in Florida discovered a live red-shouldered hawk stuck in the grille of their Chevy Silverado on the morning after a trip through I-75 in the Everglades, a.k.a. Alligator Alley.

CROW, which is based in Sanibel, Fla., writes on their website that the driver first thought the bird was dead, but quickly learned otherwise and then worked to remove the grille to free the injured hawk. (We’re thinking that welding gloves would have come in handy at this point considering a hawk’s talons and beak.)

“Once it was out of the grille, the driver rushed the hawk to the CROW Clinic so it could receive medical treatment,” CROW writes in a blog that they’ve been keeping on the bird.

After being admitted on Sept. 30, the bird underwent surgery for a broken wing and as of Thursday continues to make a comeback though it’s not exactly been the best patient as it continues to tear off its bandages and bite the rehabbers.