Holly Lamar, a master falconer and owner of a Nashville “bird experience” business, has a story to tell about each one of her 13 captive-bred birds of prey.
The story behind Faith, her 7-year-old peregrine falcon, is tied to a particularly rough patch for Lamar, who experienced success as a Grammy-nominated songwriter then lost nearly everything. The 20-day-old chick arrived just after Lamar fell victim to a financial scam that wiped out earnings from her music career.
She picked the name “Faith” to symbolize the feelings of trust she was trying to regain in her life — and as a nod to Faith Hill, the country singer who recorded “Breathe,” a 1999 megahit co-written by Lamar.
Faith, the falcon, is now dead — one of 13 birds seized by officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in a sweeping August search of Lamar’s home and property that a Nashville judge later called egregious, an abuse of the law and a violation of Lamar’s constitutional rights.
TWRA obtained the search warrant days after Lamar filed a complaint against an agency employee in charge of enforcing raptor regulations. The employee, Lamar told the Lookout, had given her conflicting information about state raptor permit rules and failed to respond entirely to other questions for months.