Last week I went to Kangaroo Island with my wife to visit her parents. We do this about six times a year, sometimes more often. (For those that say this must be expensive: The photographic journeys and family events make the money worth every cent.)
This time we visited the “Raptor Domain“, my first time at this location. They do a educational exhibition of many types of birds. It is aimed at educating school kids, entertaining international visitors to Kangaroo Island, plus giving parents a great place to take their teenage kids to learn about how life works. It is both entertaining and educational.
This visit was going to prove most educational for everyone: We found out that the mighty-birds carry the strength into every fight, but may not always win. On this occasion the smaller prey managed to survive.
Read the rest of this story below the photograph of the lucky bird…
Moments after this shot, the handler directed the bird to fly to a nearby tree.
Without warning, a larger bird, a predator to this small falcon, came streaking from the sky and attacked, knocking this small falcon off its perch so that both birds fell into the bushes. It was all very rushed, yet it took everyone, particularly the bird-handler, by surprise!
The two birds flew off in the bush, and the handler (who had hand-reared the bird from quite young) was quite distraught. Despite this, he continued the show whilst his partner rushed into the bushes to find the birds.
About 30minutes later the small falcon above flew back into the arena, very shaken and with a puncture wound in his chest. The show was hurried through, the international visitors were apologised to (yet I doubt none were going to object), and the handlers jumped into a car and sped off to the Kingscote Veterinarian with the bird.
Sorry, I’ve heard nothing about the situation since. I will contact the ‘park within the next few days and will publish here when I find out more.
UPDATE:
The falcon required 1 stitch up its chest to fix the wound. Lucky little guy has continued on with his performance, enjoying a meaty-feed a few times a day!
Creativity & Artwork of Stephen Mitchell 
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