Hawk drops in on Costa Mesa household

Susan McCormack

COSTA MESA -- This past weekend, one Costa Mesa household was surprised

by not one, but two intruders.

Planning Commissioner Walt Davenport, who lives on Parkview Circle, said

he and his wife returned home Saturday morning to find one of the glass

windows near their back door broken. He said upon entering his home, they

didn’t find any sign of a robbery, but reported the incident to the

police because it was suspicious.

That night, Davenport said his wife, Sally, heard a noise in the living

room. She quickly called him to investigate, fearing it might be an

intruder.

Davenport said he searched the armoire, which the couple uses as an

entertainment center, and what he found was something completely

different than a burglar: a trapped red-tailed hawk.

“I assumed it was coming after the cat or the cockatiel [and got stuck],”

he said, adding that the wild bird must have entered the house through

the broken window.Animal Control officer Robert O’Brien was called to the

scene and rescued the hawk, which was unharmed and released the next day,

he said. O’Brien said the event was extraordinary because of the bird’s

entrance into the home.

“Once in a while, birds will come into a house if the doors are wide open

... but through a window is unusual,” O’Brien said.

While the Davenports said they live “fairly close to the wild,” they said

it was the first time an animal has ever entered their home.

“We get opossums and skunks in the backyard, but nothing in the house,”

Davenport said.

Police believe the broken window was caused by an intruder who could not

get in the house because of the door’s deadbolt.