The RWE wind farm service engineers rescued a saker falcon at the substation of the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm.
The bird called Rocket landed on the substation after flying roughly 300 kilometres from the Berlebeck Eagle Station in the Teutoburg Forest. It was taken to Heligoland on board of a crew vessel where it was nursed back to health at the ornithological station on the North Sea island before falconer Benjamin Aschmann took him back home.
“I’m very glad that Rocket came out of his first adventure so well and that I received the bird back in such a healthy and chirpy condition,” said Benjamin Aschmann of the Berlebeck Eagle Station .
Ilja Rakoniewski, Senior Offshore Technician at RWE Innogy added: “We then discovered the falcon high up on a cable tray. At first, we didn’t know how we were supposed to catch him. We tried luring him with a meatball, but he wasn’t interested. Then we contacted the ornithological station on Heligoland and with a few tips from the experts we were able to catch Rocket and place him in the care of the ornithologists.”
“They took loving care of the weakened animal and used his ring to ascertain the falcon’s owner. That was really a very special day that neither we nor Rocket will forget very fast,” adds Christian Benedick, service engineer for the Nordsee Ost wind farm.