Tight quarters doesn't stop DNR warden from wildlife rescue
January 20, 2013
By: Joanne M. Haas/Bureau of Law Enforcement
Ramp to freedom?
Or, how the warden came to endorse free-range mice diets for birds
After he listened to the Vernon County Sheriff’s dispatcher describe what was trapped in a farmer’s corn crib, Warden Dale Hochhausen of La Crosse knew exactly what he’d need to pull off this wildlife rescue on New Year’s Day.
Welding gloves and a fishing net. How did he know this? Experience! Hochhausen has a track record for rescuing other animals in unique situations.
Remember, this was the guy who last year convinced a wildlife technician with rodeo in his blood to join in the lasso-airboat rescue of the exhausted deer from the ice cover on the Mississippi River. That little adventure was after the night he grabbed his wire-cutters and took his solo moonlight hike up DeSoto bluff in La Crosse to free a large angry buck from a wire fence.
So what’s a couple of "baby eagles" after playing keep away at night in the dark with a big, really mad buck with pointy antlers darting back and forth in a confined area? “I really didn’t know what to expect,” he said.
Like that's ever stopped this guy before.
Two red-tailed hawks found their way out of this Vernon County corn crib thanks to Warden Dale Hochhausen.
He at least knew what the dispatcher told him -- that a farmer reported two baby eagles fell into his corn crib. This made Warden Hochhausen's tools-of-the-day choices seem logical. Welding gloves would protect his hands from the eagles’ sharp and powerful talons. And if he had to, he could use the fishing net to help capture the birds and move them from the corn palace to open skies.
He hit the road with a plan in hand -- and in head. Once Hochhausen arrived on the farm, he saw the wired corn crib was about two thirds full with corn cobs. The top of the corn crib looked more like an upside funnel. The cover for the top had blown off, allowing the birds to get into the corn crib.
And there was another discovery.
“I immediately saw the two birds were not immature bald eagles. They were red-tailed hawks,” he said. This was good! “Red-tailed hawks are not nearly as powerful as bald eagles."
The farmer told Hochhausen there was a panel door that could be opened at the top of the corn crib. Well, Hochhausen thought, this was all falling into place – his rescue brainstorm would prove to be picture perfect for just such an occasion!
One of the trapped red-tailed hawks perches on the corn crib fence.
The farmer went to get his 20-foot extension ladder. And up the ladder went Hochhausen. All was well until … he opened that door at the top of the corn crib. “Whoa,” he thought to himself, “this is not going to work.”
The opening was small – around 18 inches wide and three feet long. That’s a tad smaller than Warden Dale. “I might have been able to slide through the opening in my younger days.” Three feet long? Sounds more like grade school days.
In the interest of being able to actually be useful the rest of the day, Hochhausen thought better of a squeeze play. Otherwise, it could turn into two hawks AND a conservation warden in need of a rescue.
Meanwhile, the two hawks definitely were showing their nerves and began flying around the crib while Hochhausen was on that ladder, mulling his next move – which was down the ladder.
Working with the farmer, the two men nailed together two 10-foot boards to create a 20-foot ramp. Hochhausen slid the board through the panel door opening with one end of the board resting on the top of the corn and the other end resting on the opening of the panel door.
The idea was a ramp to freedom. “We were thinking they could just walk their way out,” Hochhausen said. “I didn’t know if it would really work.”
But it sure sounded good.
And by the time he walked back to his warden truck, one of the hawks had made its way up the board and was perched in the opening about to take flight. “That was a relief when one of the hawks flew away.”
Hochhausen asked the farmer to check back later that afternoon to see if the other hawk was out. It didn’t take long. Hochhausen got a call from the farmer who saw the other hawk was free.
“Whew, if that didn’t work, the next option was cutting the wires on the corn crib so I could actually slide inside the corn crib. This was the farmer’s suggestion, but I didn’t want to damage the farmer’s corn crib if we didn’t have to. There was a wooden door at the bottom, but emptying the corn crib would have been the farmer’s last option.”
Hochhausen is convinced the hawks went in there to get a holiday meal -- the mice crawling around the corn pile.
That gave Hochhausen an idea for a New Year’s diet resolution for these two hawks: Only eat free-range mice. The crib-fed ones are too dangerous for their health – and his.