It takes a flock of people to return a baby hawk to its nest in Medinah

Greg Kocaj and a mother hawk have one thing in common: They're both relieved caregivers.

The 35-year-old Kocaj moved to Medinah a little more than a month ago. A large nest built in the lofty branches of a front-yard tree came with his new house.

But he did not know the occupants of the nest until his brother, Martin, came home from work early Monday evening to discover a helpless baby Cooper's hawk at the base of the tree. Fortunately for the hawk, their encounter has a happy ending.

Like any nervous parent, Kocaj consulted the internet to figure out what to do. At first, he thought the bird was just a fledgling, a baby that's learning to fly and should be monitored but left alone.

So Kocaj kept a watchful eye, noticed its parents were still flying around and let it be for a couple of hours. But his brother had found the baby within an hour of storms Monday and assumed high winds knocked the hawk prematurely out of the nest some 35 to 40 feet up the tree.

As night approached and Kocaj grew increasingly worried about ground-dwelling predators, he knew who to call.

Vicki Weiland is a state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator who runs Kane Area Rehabilitation and Education for Wildlife, a 25-year-old nonprofit operation based out of her St. Charles home. When he was living at his old house, Kocaj had brought Weiland two baby birds to rehab after they fell out of their nest.

It already had been a busy night for Weiland when Kocaj called about 8 p.m.

"We had a baby owl, we had a hit-by-a-car turtle. We had some baby possums that were picked out of the mud," Weiland said. "This kind of rain is just devastating to the baby wildlife."

As she usually does, Wieland asked for a photo of the bird because well-meaning people "half the time don't know what they're looking at."

Based on the hawk's feathers, Weiland thought it was a little over 4 weeks old.

"We can't leave the baby on the ground because he was wet," Weiland told Kocaj. "The ground was going to get cold. That will just do him in when they're that little."

Ideally, the goal is to safely return a healthy bird to its natural habitat. But Weiland and Kocaj had one major obstacle: the height of the nest.

Weiland suggested calling the fire department.

Roselle firefighters agreed to help, but only in the daylight.

So just when they seemed to be running out of options, Weiland enlisted John Papach, a falconer and raptor handler who happens to live in nearby Glendale Heights.

"He helps our rehabilitation group with our birds of prey all the time," Weiland said. "He's been such an asset to the organization."

Turns out he's an asset when you have a stranded baby hawk on your hands, too.

Papach arrived on the scene - it had become a neighborhood spectacle - about 9:30 p.m., scooped up the hawk in a blanket, brought it home and fed it overnight.

On Tuesday morning, he went back to Kocaj's house to complete the mission. Firefighters - Weiland would later give a Facebook shout-out to the Tower 64 crew - launched their truck ladder, and Papach got in the bucket with the hawk to reunite it with three other babies.

"It was quite the neighborhood event, and everybody was happy. And I can't believe how many babies were in that nest," Weiland said.

The fast-flying Cooper's hawks are regularly seen in the area, smaller than the more commonly found red-tailed hawks.

Papach told Kocaj it could be at least another two weeks before the babies have developed the feathers to take flight. Until that rite of passage, Kocaj will keep a watchful eye on their nest.

"At first I was really worried we wouldn't be able to figure out anything so he would make it through the night," Kocaj said of his new feathered friend. "But once I started calling and talking to people, I was more hopeful than anything because it seemed like everybody was more than willing to try to help in any way they can, along with the fire department."