Don Timmer

Happy was a female Red Tail Hawk, She was also a bitch, hence the name. In 1972 Dave Siddon, Steve Hoddy, Ken Ebert and myself had a raptor ( bird of prey) rehabilitation center in Canoga Park Ca..Happy came to us from Bush Gardens in Van Nuys She was very large (3lb. 5oz flying weight) and aggressive, so we trained and used her to hunt and help supply the dozens other birds with the natural food they needed for good health. In 1973 we moved the center to Merlin Or.(birders will smile at that). I believe in the fall of 1974 Buick contacted Dave about Happy. Buick had no real gas economy cars and the gas crisis of the early 70's was starting to hurt, their answer, the Skyhawk. Happy at the time was moulting so that is why she only has 7 tail feathers (normal is 12) and some secondarys missing.We did a mass amount of work for Buick as they were also putting together a film to show to investors to raise money to re tool for the smaller cars. The funds from the Sky hawk job help fund what is now Wildlife Images in Merlin, now run by Dave's son David.(I'm sure they could use donations) Hope that clears up some things, Don.