After six days and an exhaustive search, Kari Gabriel has recovered the one-eyed, rough-legged hawk that has been in her care for six years. Hawkeye, who suffered brain damage from a vehicle strike in 2014, was rescued around 6 p.m. Thursday evening after she escaped from her enclosure Saturday during the heavy winds.

“It was a perfect rescue after an exhausting six days,” said Gabriel, who serves on the Kalispell City Council and rehabilitates birds through her clinic, Montana Bird Lady.

Volunteers—both those who know Gabriel personally and assorted strangers—searched constantly for Hawkeye throughout the week. Her location was finally confirmed Thursday evening, and Gabriel worked with the Kalispell Fire Department and Herb Waldruff from Independent Tree Service to retrieve the distinctive hawk from her perch in a pine tree on Arizona Street. Earlier, Flathead Electric Cooperative had tried to recover Hawkeye using a bucket truck, but the ladder wasn’t long enough to reach the bird 90 feet up in a tree.

Gabriel climbed the ladder herself, along with Kalispell firefighter Brandon French. They quickly secured Hawkeye in a net and carried her back down to safety.

“She wasn’t happy,” Gabriel said, but now Hawkeye is back home and “doing all right.”

Gabriel said the hawk—who is blind in one eye, has a detached retina in the other and is completely unaccustomed to flying—was considerably thinner when they recovered her, but she said, “we’ll feed her extra heavy this week and then she should be just fine.”

She’s currently working to reinforce Hawkeye’s enclosure, which was knocked over during the weekend storm. In the meantime, Hawkeye has been relocated to a kennel in Gabriel’s garage in North Kalispell, where she’s reportedly chowing down on her favorite snack—beef hearts.

Because of Hawkeye’s severely impaired vision, she was unprepared to hunt for her own food, and Gabriel estimated, “she went six days without eating.”

Fortunately, she also said the hawk, who has not been flying since being struck by a car six years ago, was “flying great.”

“It’s amazing she didn’t hit anything,” Gabriel noted.

Equally amazing in Gabriel’s estimation was the outpouring of public support that led to Hawkeye’s rescue. “I had an army of volunteers,” she said. “It’s been unreal.”

She said the search team consisted of about 20 people she knew, and many others she didn’t—including a man she knows only by the first name “Nathan,” who apparently had the first confirmed sighting of Hawkeye on Arizona Street, which led to her eventual recovery.

In addition to spending time searching and calling Gabriel with tips, she said community members were exceptionally gracious in allowing strangers to traipse through their yards and school grounds searching for Hawkeye, as well as coordinating the dicey rescue 90 feet up.

They were able to use the fire truck for the eventual successful rescue only thanks to coordination from the Kalispell City Attorney, City Manager and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

A falconer also attempted to lure her in twice, but the hawk apparently wasn’t interested in the bait.

Gabriel said the Facebook post about the lost bird was shared a few hundred times online after she posted about it Saturday.

“People helped in different ways,” Gabriel gushed. “I have so many people to thank. We had a great team come together.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.