Dead Hawk With Bullet Wound Found Near Shinnecock Bay

A dead hawk with an apparent bullet wound was found just west of the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays on Sunday afternoon.

The sharp-shinned hawk was found in the parking strip near Road K by Alex Burton, an East Quogue resident who was taking nature photos at the time.

“It was lying on its back, stomach up, and I turned it over to look at it, and it looked like it had a large hole blasted out of it,” Mr. Burton said of the hawk. “I go driving on Dune Road a lot to take nature photographs, so I was obviously upset to see this.”

After finding the hawk, Mr. Burton said he reported it to the Southampton Town Police. A police officer told him they were forwarding the report to the State Department of Environmental Conservation—which is protocol, according to Town Police Lieutenant Susan Ralph.

The DEC investigates dead raptors to determine how they died and if there was any foul play involved.

Mr. Burton said it looked as if the hawk had been shot, speculating that a duck hunter could have been responsible for its death. Duck hunting ended on Long Island on January 31, but geese hunting continues until March 31, according to the DEC website.

It remained unclear this week why the hawk was shot, as the DEC never directly responded to the scene.

Aphrodite Montalvo, a DEC spokesperson, said there were no complaints of a dead hawk found near Shinnecock Bay reported to her office this week.

Eileen Schwinn, the vice president of the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society, identified the species of hawk after The Press shared Mr. Burton’s photos of the dead raptor with her.

“I wish the DEC would have checked it out,” Mr. Burton said of the hawk on Wednesday morning. “If it was something natural it would be one thing, but it was such a severe wound.”