Back in the days of slide photography I was on a trip to the Falkland Islands and came across some Striated Caracaras. These are one of the World's rarest Birds of Prey and must rank as one of the smartest. They are popular in captivity for public flying displays because of the "tricks" that they can be taught to perform. In the wild they appear to be totally fearless and will actually come up and go through your pockets. I must confess that I allowed this one to see where I had put my lunch and, if left to his own devices, it would have taken just a few minutes to effect a "breaking and entering".

   In these days of "digital" this would not be a difficult set-up to "manipulate" but in the days of slide it took a little more arranging. I had hoped to sell the shot to Lowepro with the caption "He knows when he's onto a good thing" but by the time I got round to it the bag had been discontinued!

Striated_caracara__Phalcoboenus_australis