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TUKTOYAKTUK - Natural resource officer Lila Voudrach does a lot of work with animals but it isn't very often she gets to bring her work home with her.

That changed late last month when a concerned Tuk citizen warned Voudrach about a young bird he had seen on the side of the road.

Hudson, a rough-legged hawk, prepares to go out into the world on his own. Staff from Environment and Natural Resources rescued the abandoned bird from Tuktoyaktuk and fed him until he was old enough to fly on his own. - photo courtesy of Marsha Branigan/ENR

"He told me he was worried someone might accidentally hit it with a vehicle," said Voudrach.

The bird was on the ground near the entrance of the NTCL yard. It was an immature rough-legged hawk that had fallen from its nest.

Within minutes Voudrach found the bird and brought it back to the office.

She heard from people living near the nest there had been two adults and three fledglings. A Biologist from Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) told her the bird may have hatched later than his siblings.

Because she had never dealt with a hawk in her time on the job, Voudrach called some colleagues in Inuvik who told her what to do. She was told most injured birds are sent to a rehabilitation clinic in Alberta. However, this hawk appeared to be in good health.

Voudrach ended up keeping the bird in a cage normally used for small mammals. She left him in the ENR garage because she didn't want to disturb it more than she had to. Still, she couldn't resist going in to check on the bird now and then.

The hawk provided entertainment for Voudrach's two-year-old son, who was fascinated by the animal.

"He just wanted to go there all the time," said Voudrach. "He really likes animals. He would try to get too close to it and the bird would lift up its wings."

Luckily the bird was old enough to know food when he saw it. She started by giving the bird a small amount of meat. At first he wouldn't take any but eventually he got hungry enough to eat what was offered.

"I just kept feeding it raw meat and water," she said.

Voudrach looked after the hawk for two days before she found a container suitable for sending him to Inuvik. She borrowed a small dog kennel and sent him out on the scheduled flight as cargo.

Ron Morrison, ENR superintendent for the Inuvik Region was one of the ENR staff who looked after the bird once he reached Inuvik. He said the bird was in good health when they received him.

"When we send them out for rehab it is because they have a damaged wing or a broken leg," Said Morrison. Since the bird was okay, they kept him in Inuvik. Before long staff had named him Hudson. Instead of beef, they fed Hudson with red-backed voles collected and frozen during a trapping survey earlier in the summer.

Morrison said the bird was only about a week too young to start flying on its own. Within a few weeks they took Hudson outside of town and let him loose.

Marsha Branigan, manager of wildlife management was there when they let Hudson go.

"When we released the bird it came out onto the trailer and then flew off rather awkwardly into the bushes. That was the last we saw it as far as I know," she said.

Voudrach said she hopes Hudson makes it on his own. Winter is coming on quickly in the Delta, but perhaps his instincts will carry him through the winter.

"It was a beautiful bird," she said.