A falconer said he had been left worried after his bird of prey managed to escape.
Mick Smith, 76, had been visiting his partner in Brantham, Suffolk, over the weekend, with his two peregrine falcons.
Due to it being the bird’s hunting season, he had to bring them with him to ensure he could monitor their feeding.
However, because he did not intend to fly the birds, they were not wearing GPS tags and when the female named Chanel escaped, it left her untraceable and Mr Smith in need of help from local people.
“They were tethered out on their blocks on the back lawn on Sunday and I just casually glanced across, one was OK and the other had disappeared,” explained Mr Smith, who lives near Ely in Cambridgeshire.
“From there we started the search. I immediately put it on Facebook and was impressed by the contact I had from local people and we’ve been searching ever since.”
Mr Smith said he had been walking miles around the Brantham area since Monday morning, after numerous reports of Chanel who is three years old.
The bird had not responded to any calls or lures, he said.
In the UK, falconers must have licences to fly their birds and Mr Smith explained his only covered flying in Cambridgeshire.
This was another reason why Chanel was not wearing a GPS tag, he added.
Chanel is able to hunt in the wild but Mr Smith said it was “well past” her usual feeding time [Contributed]
“The bullet I’ve got to bite is that I’ve tied what’s called a falconer’s knot four times every day for the last 50 years and something went wrong with my tying it yesterday because that should not have come undone,” Mr Smith added.
As well as this the falconer believed Chanel still had her leash attached to her which he feared could get caught in trees.
He asked people to keep an eye on their roofs and in their gardens in case the falcon had killed any other birds while hunting for food.
“People should look for flocks of crows, rooks and seagulls because they don’t like birds of prey and they will mob them mercilessly to get them to fly out of their area,” he added.
Mr Smith stressed that Chanel would not attack, but might fly off if approached.
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