Lost Pet Falcon Attacks Goose Hunter

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20041014/ap_on_fe_st/pet_falcon_attack

WARROAD, Minn. - It might have seemed like the birds were fighting back against a Duluth hunter on a recent trip to far northern Minnesota.



Dan Erickson was walking back to his blind with a Canada goose slung over his shoulder when he was hit from behind and driven to his knees.


A hungry peregrine falcon "came down and smacked him," hunting partner Bill Lord said.


Erickson dropped the goose and pointed his gun at the hovering falcon when Lord's 12-year-old son, Nate, noticed a bell on the falcon's back. He also noticed a piece of leather on the bird's foot.


It turned out that it was a pet falcon that had escaped from its owner in Canada. So the group let the falcon feed on a pile of dead geese and eventually captured it with an empty packsack.


An official from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources helped them return the bird to the Winnipeg falconer later that day.


"We just wanted the bird to get where it was supposed to go," Lord said.