Hobby Falcon chasing Swallow

Hobby Falcon (Falco subbuteo)

This is a bird I have always wanted to do flying, either catching a Swallow or Dragonfly.  I eventually got a good adult carcass of a bird that had hit a wire.  The bird was perfect, so it was down to me to try and keep it that way.

I tried to recreate the illusion of it catching a Swallow over a bit of spring bog.  The base of the bog water has a vac formed hollow to take the depression of the water and the Swallow is suspended via a wire protruding from the toe of the Hobby, travelling along the outer tail feather of the Swallow and the Hobby is suspended via a wire coming from its tail and into a log.  I'm not very happy with the hiding of this wire and need to better this on any next project.

I displayed the bird at the the Guild of Taxidermists' annual conference in 2013 and it won the following awards:

• Bird Taxidermy Competition
• Best of Show
• Wagstaffe Trophy awarded for best cased item
• Best Groundwork
• Master Credit

For the moment, I am keeping this Hobby and will list it on this site when I decide to sell it.

Log No. 9045
A10 No. 513251/02