“I thought it was dead from the way its body was laying there,” Hicks said in a video for The Dodo. “But as I walked up to it, I realized that it was actually alive.”

It seemed that a hawk had slammed into Hicks’ house pretty hard, and the poor bird was incredibly disoriented and possibly injured. Hicks took off her jacket, wrapped the hawk in it and picked him up. He was relatively calm considering, and Hicks couldn’t believe she’d been thrust into an animal rescue after 30 years of being retired.

“I was just stunned that he had managed to survive such a hard impact,” Hicks said. ”I expected that he had some sort of wing injury.”

Hicks was able to get in touch with Project Wildlife, and one of their staff members was happy to assess the hawk and see how he was doing. He determined that the hawk needed some time to heal, so he took the bird with him back to Project Wildlife.

Hicks was nervous, hoping the bird would be OK, and much to her relief, he was. Two weeks later, Project Wildlife brought the hawk back to Hicks’ house to release him.

“The hawk was released just a few feet away from where he crashed into the house, and it was really gratifying to see that he was healthy again,” Hicks said.