Today's flights ended with hen Mallard in the bag, caught from a text book stoop, but that was only the end.   In the middle, this falcon got his first experience of what it is like to hit one of those flying bags of concrete, the Canada Goose.  This bird has flown over ponds with geese and ducks on it over the past two seasons and has never once shown any interest in the much slower, and larger, flying geese.  However, today my bird must have been feeling like David and decided he was going to take on Goliath.  From nearly 1000' he folded up and came down fully slamming into the goose.  Normally this would send a duck spiraling to ground.  From 100 yds. away I heard the "thud" of the 100 mile per hour plus collision.  Only to see the goose lower about 5 feet and keep flying in the same direction at the same speed as if nothing had happened. 

After the falcon got over the shock of what happened, he climbed right back up to the 1000' pitch and came back over the pond with the familiar ducks.  And hammered the Mallard on the flush.  So things ended pretty normal, but the look on the birds face above seems to suggest that we never speak of this again.