Falcon thievery (quoted from IBLE)

["L. D. Giddings" <seldom74 at xmission dot com>]

for those of you who don't subscribe, this was posted on today's Idaho
list:

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 01:51:27 -0000
From: "ravensbud1" <grouser20@hotmail.com>
Subject: Falcon thievery


So I was throwing the tennis ball for the dog today, using one of
those long-handled chuckers. On one of my throws, a juvenile prairie
falcon rocketed in near the top of the ball's arc and followed it to
the ground. The bird must have been sitting in some trees directly
behind me. It sat on the ground nearby as the dog searched, then
perched on a nearby fencepost as the dog retrieved the ball to me. I
thought that was about the neatest thing I'd ever seen until my next
throw. I made the dog stay, and threw the ball back into the field.
The falcon couldn't resist and immediately pounced on the ball. To my
utter astonishment, it then proceeded to fly away carrying the ball!
It went about 400 yards then landed again amongst some sagebrush. A
few minutes later I saw it fly by me with empty talons as I was
trying to sneak up on it to discover just what it would do with that
ball. Luckily, a happy ending for the dog....she got her ball back.
Not sure what that perplexed falcon thought.

Cam Collins


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