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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

The falcon and the dove (1 Viewer)

Sal

Well-known member
I came out of my place of work yesterday, towards evening, and there was a sudden rush of wings which made me look up. Past my nose, very close, streaked a cape turtle dove and went smack into the wall in front of me. As it did so I saw a falcon (I think. if it was a falcon, it was probably a Lanner) above it, literally tilting on one backswept wing to spin down. As the dove smacked into the wall, it immediately gathered itself together and rose shakily into the air, but very low and fluttered round the corner to where there is a drain in the angle of the building. The falcon, which was travelling incredibly fast had to rise to lift over the roof or it too would have hit the building. I think at the same time, it saw me and gave up the chase, streaking off before I could properly identify it. I went to check on the dove. It was sitting in the bottom of the drain, looking up at me, absolutely still and silent but seeming unhurt in terms of broken wings etc. so I put a plank over part of the drain and left it there. Later when I checked, it had gone. One lucky bird !
 
seen a fair few of those sort of incidents, the worst one for me was to see a collared (mourning) dove being plucked alive by a peregrine falcon, who in turn was being bombed by magpies, who successfully drove the raptor away so I gathered up the poor dove and took it to be cared for properly, where it made a full recovery and was returned to the wild, hopefully wiser to predators. Nina.
 
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