A RARE Hobby falcon was brought into the Penbode Veterinary Group surgery at Holsworthy recently, having been found on the roadside by a white van driver.

Examination revealed the bird to be thin and showing weakness in its left wing and leg. It spent three days in the surgery and was nursed back to strength by regular feeding by nursing staff. At first, the meat had to be pushed into its open beak, but soon it accepted it willingly.

By coincidence, a kestrel was brought in the following day but this bird was in a less exhausted state and had a voracious appetite from the minute it arrived.

Vet and bird enthusiast Rupert Kirkwood said that he only sees a few Hobbies each year as he drives from farm to farm. They are fast, slim falcons with long thin wings which enable them to catch insects such as dragonflies and birds such as swallows in flight.

Hobbies are summer visitors and by now most are on their way to their wintering grounds in Africa.

Both birds were passed onto a raptor specialist in Tavistock who reports that the kestrel had already successfully been released and the Hobby would be set free in the next few days.