Powys people asked to look out for missing peregrine falcon

Daniel Butler who works as a writer, freelance journalist and expert on foraging mushrooms, lost sight of the young bird of prey after training him on late Tuesday afternoon (August 29) near the Wye Valley.

“He is a young falcon who lives here and I was flying him free not quite for the first time but he’s only been flying for about a week or so now,” said Daniel. “Even though he had a little telemetry device on him, there’s no return on it, it just gives his location.”

“I was flying him late in the afternoon so that if something does go wrong, as it did on this occasion, they don’t go that far. This is because when it gets dark they shouldn’t fly around much.

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“As he was flying he didn’t want to come back on the lure because he was having too much fun flying around.

“So he spent the night in an oak tree right next to the house. I got up at dawn and he had moved to a tree a couple of metres away and then he flew off at 7 in the morning.”

Daniel has then spent the last day and half tracking the young bird which is a peregrine falcon mix across the Wye valley which has had its difficulties.

“I tracked him down to the other side of the valley a couple of hours later, I got a good signal from his tracker but then we lost it very suddenly,” said Daniel. “The transmitter works for up to five miles or so provided you have a clear line of sight and the problem is in Mid Wales there are obviously quite a lot of hills and if he goes round them you lose the signal.”

“I had a hunch he had gone down the Wye Valley and headed towards Dolau and Newbridge and found his signal just a bit above Newbridge but that also went dead.

“I thought he may have headed to Rhayader but he isn’t in that direction, so I am now searching towards Beulah.”

Daniel has stressed that the bird is not a danger to livestock and if he does end up hunting he will target young crows, rooks, magpies or possibly pigeons.

He said the animal can be easily identified as it is wearing bells on each leg which can be heard jingling from roughly 100 metres.

“Because he is a young bird and doesn’t know how to hunt properly the likelihood is that he will end up landing on someone’s roof,” said Daniel.  

“Once I know where he is he should be relatively easy to catch again as he hasn’t eaten for a couple of days now due to a hawks eating patterns which is boom and bust in nature.”

Anyone who spots the missing falcon can contact Daniel over Facebook or ring him on 07794 294221.