Injured Hawks Given Helping Hand From Chatham Township Police

CHATHAM, NJ — It’s still a mystery why four injured hawks have turned up around the same section of Chatham Township over the past several weeks, but what’s known is residents and the township’s police department have come to their rescue.

Chatham Township Police Chief Thomas Miller said Wednesday there are theories that each hawk may have eaten a poisoned rodent, though that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

What has happened every time though, he said, is concerned residents have reached out to police about each injured bird.

One of the responding officers has been Ptl. Sean Lampf, however, who has helped safely hand the birds off to the Raptor Trust, a bird refuge in the Millington section of Long Hill Township. Lampf assisted with one red-tailed hawk on June 14 and another this past Monday, June 21, Miller said.

Lampf has had “the opportunity to gain some hands-on knowledge” in working with wildlife like hawks since he’s been with the department, Miller added.

The department has had some other recent wildlife encounters, with a fawn grabbing a nap at the department’s entrance on May 28.

Miller said the baby deer and its mother had been spotted at the department’s front walkway on a few mornings prior to the fawn’s snooze, with the doe and her little one in the high weeds. The baby, he said, presumably departed on its own with its mom.

“We left it [the fawn] undisturbed, as we knew that it was in good health and that the mother was close by feeding,” Miller said.

Questions or comments about this story? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.