A successful Lanner Falcon Hunt!

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(Edited)

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A supreme hunter that likes to take its prey in flight!
Sorry for some graphic pictures that might disturb some here!

This Lanner Falcon (Falco biarmicus) surprised me with his hunting prowess from a great height.
When I first saw him, he was a mere dot in the sky and his dive was so fast that I could not get the dive on a camera.
Almost as fast as the Peregrine Falcon.
All of the photos here were taken on my Super Zoom.
Come and read the story!

See the little black spot at the left in the sky?
That's the falcon just before he dived!
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I rushed to a back wall to see him coming in to land in this oak tree. If you look carefully at the tree trunk, you can see him, as it is about 70 meters away from where I was standing!
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Bang! There he was and he had prey!
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Look at the beauty of this guy!
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They have extremely clear sight and although only my camera was sticking out behind the wall, he knew that I was there!
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Again he looked at me, as if to see if I was coming any closer!
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Look at his eyes following my waving hand over the distance.
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Oh yes, he caught a dove in flight!
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Not a pretty picture, but a guy has got to eat!
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Then the unexpected happened, our three crows decided to appear!
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He was fluffing and I thought that he was going to fly, but instead he flew deeper into the tree and I lost him.
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And sadly that was that, as although I waited for an hour (they finish a meal very quick) I did not see him again. I think that when he took off, the tree covered his departure.

Did you know that the Lanner Falcon is a part of this;

"This is presumably the oldest living hierofalcon species".

Now what is the "hierofalcon" species?

"The hierofalcons are four closely related species of falcon which make up the subgenus Hierofalco:
• Lanner falcon, Falco biarmicus
• Laggar falcon, Falco jugger
• Saker falcon, Falco cherrug
• Gyrfalcon, Falco rusticolus "

"The radiation of the entire living diversity of hierofalcons seems to have taken place in the Eemian interglacial at the start of the Late Pleistocene, a mere 130,000–115,000 years ago; the lanner falcons would thus represent the lineage that became isolated in sub-Saharan Africa at some time during the Riss glaciation (200,000 to 130,000 years ago)".
Source

Note also here that Lanner Falcons have been placed on the "Red Data List" meaning that they are now endangered!

And That's All Friends!

Note: All photos are my own and taken with a Canon Powershot SX60HS camera.

We hope that you have enjoyed the photos and the story.

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44 comments
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Wow, what an amazing sight, although I really feel for the dove, that's all part of nature not so;) our birds of prey are anazing!

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Oh yes, our raptors are indeed amazing to catch in action Lady Lizzie.
The great news is that I got another bonus.

I have only ever gotten one African Fish Eagle on camera, but this time I saw two of them together. They were flying very high, but I will recognize that call anywhere.

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You had some really nice captures.
I really love to seem them separately specially in a community where we can get them at once.
Special thanks to @melinda010100 for creating such beautiful tracks a form community.

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Thank you and I am glad that you appreciated the captures my friend!

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Wow, you were so lucky again Zac, and you didn't promise too much.

This is such a beautiful bird, and as said in another comment, beautiful things are often dangerous 😉


Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Incredible photos of that amazing bird. I hope that their population can recover. I can't imagine being without these magnificent raptors.

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They have many enemies Lady Melinda, as no farmer likes to see their chickens disappear. So, poison and other methods are used to solve the problem.
Then we also have those infernal high electric cables that I used to work on and we had to remove some big raptors electrocuted at the top of the towers.
Such is life my friend!

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Cool photos! 👍You are well done! Agree, the color of this bird is quite invisible on the ground. But you managed to notice and take a photo.

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I am blessed with keen eysight my friend.
Thank you and it was a great experience to get the Lanner on camera!

Cheers and !BEER

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Not excessively big, speed counts along with exceptional eyesight, what a lovely set of real life in action photography Stephen.

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Thank you and you are so right about the size Lady Joan.
The Peregrine falcon is even smaller than this guy, but he is the fastest falcon in the sky!

Look at this beauty!
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I posted about the Peregrine Falcon last year and have many unused photos, such as this one. So maybe I must do a post of him again.

Blessings!

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Alas I feel I need an escape away from town already, week away and nothing but catching up for year end of late.

Wish I was a Peregrine Falcon to swoop across the sky free of turmoil down below, just for a short spell....

Thanks for sharing this gorgeous capture, about time you did a dedicated post to this little fellow of the skies. I see he brought me some lunch, next time I will have special request, no feathers 😄

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Now can you believe it that I was told by a European photographer to send that Peregrine photo to National Geographic, as I took the photo on his premises and I refused Lady Joan. I will not tell this to anyone else, but I think that you know me by now and personal fame is not in my bucket list.
Maybe I will do a post of the peregrine on a rainy day 😁

Catching up for year end? You mean work?

I share your wish to fly, but for a bit longer than a short spell 🤣

Blessings to you guys!

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Have had a request on my photography through Flickr of North Coast which I said they could use for brochure or pamphlet on Parks Board to advertise the area, if it is for wildlife I don't mind. Never heard if they did or didn't, they thanked me and that was the last I heard, never asked for original.

First tax for family, now updating medical aid and checking other little things that need year end updates. Still need to check my blog and my sons which are both sorely needing attention/decision making time again.

With my backlog yes I could go fly for a long time, but then nothing would be done 😂

Have an awesome day, I do pop in and out.

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Yeah, I have also had a few requests here on Hive and okayed it.
The aversion that I have is to go looking for fame lol.

We discovered this year only that the person that does our tax never claimed for our medical expenses. I paid the doctor cash for my stent operation two years ago. It was a lot of money and it was never claimed. Our medical aid forever tells us that our savings funds are depleted and then we have to pay out of pocket.
This year we will change that and start claiming back.

But this is only a small issue compared to your load and no wonder that you want to fly away!
All of the best to your efforts my dear friend!

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That had to be a special treat. What a magnificent bird, and to actually catch him diving and to land in a nearby tree with his meal in hand doesn't happen too often.

The crows are also very cool. We have some very large crows that live atop the pine forest across from us. They are entirely black. I don't ever recall seeing a crow of any other color. If I would have spotted them, I would still be wondering what kind of bird they are.

Last year I was lucky enough to spot this Osprey having a snack.
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Thank you and yes it was indeed a treat to catch him.
The crows here are known as Pied Crows (Corvus albus)
We also have the Cape crow here that is fully black (Corvus capensis).
Then we have a house crow that is grey (Corvus splendens)
Lastly we have the White-necked Raven (Corvus albicollis)
They are all in the Corvus family.

That is also a great photo that you got of the Osprey.

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Incredible!!!! The fifth photo. How in the world...
Just incredible!

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Thank you milady and that Lanner is certainly a stunner.
Last year this time I could only get one shot of him that was not too clear, but I knew that he would be back this year and somehow Lady Luck was with me!

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Amazing i think so hard to take birds photos

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Thank you and keep on practicing my friend.
A tip here is that I started taking photos of dragonflies and after I got that right, I moved on to birds!

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I have no idea how you were able to capture those pictures, wow!
Nice work.

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The zoom on my camera is very effective my friend.
So, it's merely a case of spot and zoom.
Thank you and glad that you liked it!

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