I don't know whether to love or hate this bird from day to day. If this keeps up its only a matter of time before he does himself in.....
-RVZ
Monday, January 17, 2011
Forced Bath
Had a low cloud ceiling day but running out of days to fly. The hybrid went up to the clouds I'd say maybe 700'ish. When he started getting hazy I flushed. The ducks started down wind then turned up wind and put back in the pond (The only one open for miles due to them being frozen). I ducked back behind the dam wall and watch the falcon begin his remount. At about 200' a duck must have thought he could make it on his own because I saw the falcon stoop and jumped up to see what was going on. He cold-cocked a drake Gad into the water about 4' from the shore. It was just twitching on the surface. What happened next was crazy; the falcon did a wingover and pile drove the duck and himself down under the water. WTH. I've never had a falcon even try to get a duck in the water after they've gotten past the baby stage. So he then was floating on top of the dead duck in the pond and eventually rowed himself close to shore where I could pick up him and the duck and move them to higher ground. The duck never even stirred. Sucks that he was only 200' up with the duck decided to break but damn, dead on impact from 200'!?!
I don't know whether to love or hate this bird from day to day. If this keeps up its only a matter of time before he does himself in.....
-RVZ
I don't know whether to love or hate this bird from day to day. If this keeps up its only a matter of time before he does himself in.....
-RVZ
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Be lucky that you have such a smart bird. In the east, stoops start low. We were flying a peregrine that hit a duck from about a 150' stoop on a small, tight pond surrounded by a ring of trees. The impact sounded like a baseball bat hitting the duck. This smart falcon did wing shots, broke the wing of the duck and it tumbled to the shore of the pond, flopping around with it's useless wing. The falcon on top right away. We ran around an then realize how a savy hunter she was. Your falcon knew that you were there to help her out with her swimming with the duck.
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