Hawk loose inside Library of Congress finally captured

Brett Michael Dykes
·National Affairs Reporter

Birds of prey aren't generally known for their love of learning, but over the past week a wayward hawk has set up shop inside the hallowed halls of the Library of Congress, perhaps to evade the bitter cold snap that's recently gripped the eastern United States.

The Cooper's hawk made the library's main reading room its new home last Wednesday and officials have been trying to capture it ever since. Animal rescue workers tried deploying baited traps and nets, but the bird wasn't budging. Indeed, it became such a fixture at the library that the Washington Post called upon its readers to give the hawk a name -- "Jefferson" won out, in honor of the president whose library furnished the basis of the Library's collection. (For our part, we favored "Poindexter," since seeing a mighty hawk hang around a library all day is clearly an occasion to celebrate nerd pride.)

But alas, all things come to an end, and Jefferson was captured, via a starling-baited trap, around 10 am eastern time. Reports the Washington Post's appropriately named Elizabeth Flock:

Jefferson the hawk was safely captured shortly before 9 a.m. this morning by experts from the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They laid a trap with two starling birds inside to bait the hungry hawk, who hadn't eaten since the frozen quail bait on Sunday. Jefferson swooped down to eat the starlings, and her talons quickly caught on to the trap's hooks. It took only 25 minutes for her to be captured.

Jefferson was then put into a box with breathing holes for safe transport to raptor rehab at the Raptor Conservancy. The bird experts estimated that Jefferson is now the size of a male hawk--females are usually larger than males--so it was likely she had lost weight and is emaciated. They transported her out of the library quickly to get her to food and drink.

So Jefferson was apparently starving herself in the pursuit of knowledge, in other words. It's only a matter of time, we're guessing, before she enrolls in graduate school.
(Photo: AP/Library of Congress/Abby Brack)