Karearea v pheasant

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Saw a few ~1/3 grown pheasant chicks running through the paddock as duck last night. Suddenly there was a two bird kerfuffle on top of a fence post and I quickly realised it was a falcon hanging on to a pheasant. It flew with it into bush a few metres away and I followed as quietly as I could. It was obviously a heavy load for the falcon as it seemed to struggle to get 20m into the bush. It was interesting that it was still able to deal with its catch even though it was pretty much dark by this stage. Lucky for me I had thermal bins so was able to watch (time set wrong in the video below).
Hopefully the falcon stays around and cleans up the rest of them so the vege garden might get a break.
https://youtu.be/xFH_PpX2K70

Falcon with pheasant chick in the dark.

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