CHELMSFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - Eyes on the road, hawk eyes that is.

A large hawk became wedged in the grill of a Honda CRV in Chelmsford Thursday afternoon.

Judy Harmon says she was driving with her husband back home to Maine on 495 when all of the sudden, a hawk dove down.

“It came so quickly,” said Harmon. “Like ‘BOOM,’ there it is.”

Harmon was unsure if they had hit the bird so they pulled over at the Chelmsford rest stop.

When her and her husband got out, they discovered two big eyes staring back at them.

“It was like a movie,” said Harmon. “It looked like National Geographic!.. You have this hawk and he’s just, he’s looking at you, he’s looking at everybody and he’s not crying. He’s totally with it! Just stuck, he could not get out!”

State police, environmental police, and Chelmsford’s Animal Control officer all responded to the roadside rescue.

“When they’re hunting they become hyper focused on their prey and sometimes they forget where they are… This hawk had come out of the median and the couple collided with it as it swooped down towards the roadway,” said Mark Cianci, Animal Control Officer for Chelmsford and Tyngsboro.

More resources were called in, making for a wild day for the service director at Nucar Honda of Westford.

“That was a first for me especially with the bird being alive, that was pretty incredible,” said Stan Dekhtyar, Service Director of Nucar Honda of Westford. “Definitely a stick of shock. We were a little worried obviously about being that close to a wild hawk but he was… the bird was relatively calm.”

The Harmons, who first responders say did the right thing by staying calm and pulling over, just got the car a month ago.

“I mean, the grill is broken, and it’s a brand new car, but the bird is alive,” said Harmon.

The hawk will hopefully be able to fly again soon.

“It appeared to be in good health other than [being] a little disheveled, feathers a little ruffled,” said Cianci.

“Yeah, hopefully the hawk survives and it’ll be up in flight in no time,” said Dekhtyar.

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