The Springfield Fire Rescue Division had a unique rescue last month — and a firefighter uniquely qualified to help.
Kris Klosterman, a firefighter based in Station One, was between training and call response this February, when he answered a call from his personal phone. Mathew Bourne, Clark County’s Game Warden, had gotten a call from a driver who hit a raptor on Ohio 4 but was off duty.
Klosterman happens to be a trained falconer with 12 years of experience handling and hunting with raptors.
“I love the fact that our game warden has my phone number,” Klosterman said. “There's only a couple of us that are falconers in Clark County, and he knows that I work for the fire department. And that was his first question, ‘Are you on duty today?”
He and a crew routed the scene at the parking lot outside of the Clark County Combined Health District, just a few minutes away.
Once there, he crouched in front of the driver’s Ford truck, assessing the damage. From beyond in-tact grill bars, a red-tailed hawk peered back.
“The guy had hit it right dead center of the truck,” Klosterman said. “And it just went right through the grill and was stuck between the grill and the radiator.”
Up to 80% of raptors don’t survive their first year of life, said Rebecca Jaramillo, director of the Raptor Center at Glen Helen Nature Preserve, an educational center and rehabilitation clinic. Roadway incidents bring in most of the center’s injured patients, followed by window strikes and “caught by cat.”
“The road is nice and clear. There's no cover for its prey,” Jaramillo said. “There's lots of little critters that are running around along the roadsides.”
She said many of the raptors’ prey are attracted to roadsides by food scraps discarded from vehicle windows. Often, raptors are hit when flying low enough to catch a snack, and quick enough to give drivers little chance to react.
But, less of them end up stuck inside the vehicles that hit them.
“It wasn't a head-on collision, somehow she wound up turned around and she was facing outwards, which is not really the presentation that we're used to seeing,” Jaramillo said.
A multi-skilled crew
Klosterman didn’t have his falconry gear. So, after the driver gave him permission to break off a piece of the truck’s grill, he used his fireman’s gloves to reach in, compress its wings and pull it out.
The bird was terrified, but he’s familiar with raptors’ often fight-ready demeanor and sharp talons.
“Just having that skill set and being called up, you know, ‘You're in the game, kid, go do your thing.’ It was great. It was a really cool day,” Klosterman said. “Everybody here brings something to the table. I just felt very fortunate that I was on duty that day and it was something that we could help.”
The Fire/Rescue Division has seen an increase in its call volume, citing its busiest year yet in 2024. Fire Chief Jacob King said, as the department's calls have increased, so have their variety.
“We solve problems every day, no matter if it's a medical problem or a fire or some other problem that you have,” King said. “It's pretty easy for us to change gears and figure out a solution.”
King said the hawk rescue was a welcomed change of pace.
“We're not having to see them on their worst day, one of these other tragic events that people do go through on a regular basis,” King said.
An adolescent female red-tailed hawk
Klosterman, still on duty, couldn’t transport it to the Glen’s Raptor raptor clinic. So, he called someone who could take it the rest of the way: his falconry mentor, Joseph Dorian.
Dorian drove from Columbus, where he runs a School of Falconry. He brought a hood designed to cover the raptor’s eyes, calm her for the around 20 minute ride, and keep her from further injury.
At the raptor center, Rebecca Jaramillo examined the injured raptor, identified as an adolescent, female red-tailed hawk. She seemed to evade major injury, but lost a significant amount of feathers.
“She's unfortunately lost all of those end feathers, the ones closest to the tips of the wings, and those are the most important for flight,” Klosterman said. “Her flight is pretty poor. She can fly a few feet at most.”
The hawk will have to molt and regrow new feathers this summer. And, faces a long road to recovery; likely, a couple years of hunting season conditioning with a falconer. Once she recovers her strength and confidence, she’ll be released back into the wild.
"A hospital without an ambulance"
The hawk’s experience, though traumatic, was quite lucky, Jaramillo said.
Many avian rehabilitation centers have stopped taking new patients as bird flu cases are on the rise. The Glen Helen clinic continues to accept birds as long as they don’t exhibit symptoms.
And, the hawk’s journey, being captured and transported by two people trained to handle raptors, was unique, Jaramillo said. The Raptor Center doesn’t have the resources to send staff to pick up injured birds. Often, those who find them are guided by Jaramillo over the phone on how to do so – hopefully band-aid free and safely in a box.
“And [they’re] like, ‘What do you mean? I don't know how to do this. I'm not trained to do this,” Jaramillo said. “And I understand how just ridiculous that sounds. But we just don't have the ability to go out.”
The Raptor Center is funded by Glen Helen donations and program fees. It applies for grant funding for projects, like its hopeful addition of a hospital building. That would expand its current one room clinical space, and separate quarantine unit.
They have more patients year over year. Last year they had over 200 patients.
“There's just a whole lot less space for them to be hunting in, and there's a whole lot less critters for them to be hunting, because we're kinda eating up all that space, and we're getting rid of all of the critters,” Jaramillo said. “So, even not directly man-made reasons for them to come in are probably man-related reasons.”
The center hosts educational programs and events, hoping to pass on their appreciation for wildlife and inspire further generations of falconers and wild-life workers.
The birds that can’t be released safely back into the wild are considered for educational ambassadorship, and travel to places like classrooms, scouts troop meetings, and nursing homes.
“Our education goal is 'How do we live better with our environment that's around us, and the animals that are in our environment instead of us versus them?” Jaramillo said.