Animal Planet

[dmddave 0]

Did anyone catch the show on Animal Planet this past week about predators? Among them was a peregrine falcon somebody had trained, and to show the speed a peregrine is capable of, they took the bird to 10k in a hot air balloon with a tandem master and the narrator acting as the student. The TM held a fake birdie in his hand and then dove off the balloon when the birds owner told him to. About five seconds later, the bird was released and the camera flyer was able to get a good picture of the falcon catching the tandem pair in freefall. The bird just lurked the tandem, hovering around the two, eyeballing his birdie toy. The TM's Pro-Track said they were doing 158mph whe the falcon caught them, they figured the bird did 180 to catch up. It's amazing that something with so little mass can reach those speeds.