On a perfect crescent of sandy beach we found a pied cormorant with its breast torn out. From the prints we could see that the dingo had passed it and come close for a look but apparently not touched it. The bird’s prints showed that it had walked forward, probably trying to take flight in that awkward cormorant way. By the manner of its death and the fact that only the breast had been eaten, it is probable that a pere­grine falcon had stooped on the bird, stood on its corpse and then flown off, a metallic blue-black death machine.