Bird breeder lost a prize.

This high treetop is the territory of a Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus).

Thankfully, not every day that we see this, but nature has its own rules.

Note: This post is not for sensitive people.

We came here for me to get some mountain shots, but as I parked the car, I saw some feathers on the ground. I just knew that something was up, and so I followed the feathers. The rest I will show you below. There are a number of racing pigeons and homing pigeon breeders over here, and we sometimes see big flocks of them circling around in the sky. It is a big money business this, and the breeders have won many awards for their champion birds.

The difference between racing and homing pigeons is that the racing pigeons fly at speed between a point A and a point B. The first one to arrive is the winner. The homing pigeons are taken away in cages to distances very far off, and then they are set free from the cages to fly back home. They also enter competitions by the breeders and the first one that arrives back home is declared as the champion. Normally the champion birds are then auctioned off to the highest bidder, and the buyer then start to mate them with his own birds.

But I digress and come and look what I found.

Here below is a shot that I got in of the mountain, and its cold here now as winter is approaching.

Feathers! Lots of them laying below the tree.

So, my idea was to follow the feathers.

So, I put my detective hat on, and I found a rather nasty surprise. I never like to see any animals hurt and I can just imagine what happened here. Let me show you below what I found.

Now look at that nasty surprise. It was a pedigree ringed pigeon.

Thankfully, a friendly face was waiting for us as we got back home.

We were downhearted at what I found, but we have also learned to respect the occurrences in nature, as in nature the birds of prey also have to eat and in nature nothing goes to waste. I am thinking of going back tomorrow to remove the rings on the pigeon's legs and to hand the rings in at our local vet. They might have a way to trace the owner from the information on the rings.

The new crop of young squirrels has also now arrived, and we are glad as for the past weeks we only had one squirrel in the garden. Now we have since counted four of these little ones, and they are from the previous litter and very inquisitive critters. Sadly, we have not seen the one with the broken legs for over a week now, and we don't know if it is still alive. But there is always hope.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Until next time, cheers.