Photo slideshow at bottom of story.

A tractor-trailer driver on Interstate 81 picked up the severely-injured, red-tailed hawk Nov. 1 and called for help.

A game warden took the juvenile hawk, which a vehicle apparently had struck, to the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center at Millwood in Clarke County.

Severe head trauma had destroyed the vision in her left eye. But, after five weeks of treatment and recuperation, she successfully passed “mouse school,” demonstrating her ability to hunt.

The wildlife center moved her to the flight cage for exercise a week later to ensure she could fly and perch with her limited vision.

“She flew successfully and beautifully, and maintained her weight, which meant she was still eating well,” said Hillary Davidson, a Warrenton resident who volunteers at the center.

Dr. Belinda Burwell, the center’s veterinarian and founder, “determined that her lack of one eye should not prevent the hawk from being released to the wild,” Mrs. Davidson said. “Otherwise, she would have been euthanized.”

On Christmas Eve, Dr. Burwell performed surgery to remove eye matter that could potentially cause the bird problems later. The hawk recovered quickly and, a week after surgery, went back into “mouse school,” which she passed again.

On Friday, Jan. 6, the veterinarian cleared the young hawk for return to the wild.

The next afternoon, with family members and neighbors watching, Mrs. Davidson released the hawk in her pasture near Wildcat Mountain, north of Warrenton.

Nicknamed “Hilda,” the hawk took flight, circled and perched high in a tree to scan her new home . . . and to begin hunting for supper.

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