HOLTSVILLE, NY — A hawk that had become stuck in a net 100 feet up — towering over the Long Island Expressway — at Topgolf in Holtsville was finally freed after 24 hours, the Strong Island Animal Rescue League said Wednesday.
The league was called to the site on Tuesday and worked until about 2 a.m. with Suffolk police and local firefighters from the Holtsville Fire Department to free the bird, but to no avail.
It was too high up.
But with a stroke of luck, the bird was able to free itself and fly away.
The rescue league, which had been updating followers on Facebook, called it "great news."
"In this case, it worked out for the bird," the league wrote. "But … next time there has to be a plan in place! The nets overlap each other, and the hawk was stuck under the flap of the one above it."
"The range finder showed it to be 102 feet up, making it very difficult to get to, as most fire trucks don't reach that height and the turf is not built to support that weight," the league added in the post.
The league's volunteers plan to talk to regional managers at Topgolf to come up with timely emergency solutions to what they describe as an "environmental nightmare for our wildlife."
"We want to thank everyone for all the support and awareness we were able to raise for the well-being of this hawk," the league said. "To see [it] flying overhead was a great feeling."
Patch has reached out to Topgolf.
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