A woman who was part of a group of parrot owners out on an excursion in Wales went to great lengths to retrieve her scared pet after it was frightened off by a falcon.
The parrot enthusiasts were walking in Cwm Idwal, an amphitheatre-like valley popular with hikers and rock climbers, when they let their feathered friends stretch their wings. As the parrots were flying overhead, a peregrine falcon attacked them, causing one of the parrots to fly off, according to a Facebook post from Welsh mountain rescuers.
The parrot’s owner had a tracker on the bird, and used it to follow her pet up the cliffs of Glyder Fawr, a mountain that has an elevation of 1,000 metres at its peak. The woman brought two parrots out that day, so she scaled the cliff with her second bird in tow.
But when the woman reached her frightened parrot, it flew off again.
“Unfortunately the parrot decided freedom was great and flew back down to the group unassisted, leaving the owner and her second bird now stuck,” the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation wrote.
While the parrot had no problem descending the mountain, its owner needed a bit of assistance.
A mountain rescue team was deployed to bring the woman back down safely. After hiking to the base of the cliff, a rescuer was belayed up to the woman’s location.
“On arrival at the casualty, Jeckyll, the second parrot, perched on her owners’ rucksack, greeted our team member with a ‘Hello!'” the post reads.
Both parrot and owner were safely lowered to the ground and guided off the mountain by rescuers.
This isn’t the first animal rescue to take place in the U.K. this year. In May, rescuers had to use a stretcher to bring an injured and exhausted dog down from Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England.
“Despite being quite a large dog at 33kg it was a joy to carry such a relatively lightweight casualty. The casualty remained cool, calm and positively regal throughout,” the statement from the Keswick Mountain Rescue team read.