Sparrow hawk

[foxfish]

Our gardens resident sparrow hawk took a feral pigeon today, she spent all day eating the pigeon but I just couldn't get close enough for a decent picture.
In the end I took the pic by shooting through my spotting scope!

She is just the little spot below the base of the tree.

 

[chump54]

brilliant, one of my favourite birds, we have one that visits us every now and again. I once surprised him as he circled around a bush, again and again. Inside the bush was a long tailed tit. The Sparrow Hawk gave it a few more spins around the bush an shot off over the hedge. An amazing bird!

thanks for posting the pictures

Chris

 

[foxfish]

This one visits our garden all the time or more to the point our bird feeding station!
I haven't seen a male yet but, I think once they pair up they use different feeding grounds?
For the first few year after we moved to this house, I kept finding bird carcasses or just a bunch of feathers on our lawn, I then raged war or the neighbors cats!!
Now of course I realise is was the hawk (still have a cat problem though).
This sparrow hawk regularly sweeps through the garden at what seems like the speed of sound with maneuverability & braking power like nothing else or earth!
She has taken at least 10 pigeon in the last 5 years, to be honest this is fine by me but, we were not so keen when she took a coot or when she took our very friendly female blackbird!

 

[Themuleous]

Great photos and lovely bird to get in the garden I've seen attachments for scopes that allow you to mount the camera on the top for photos if you're thinking of doing it a lot

Sam

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I haven't seen a male yet but, I think once they pair up they use different feeding grounds?

Ditto, we only ever see "our" female too, she is a "Collared Dove" specialist. The male is a lot smaller in the Sparrow hawk, and I think he must hunt away from the gardens, my suspicion would be that it is a long the railway line (about 400m away), as the track is in a wide cutting with lots of scrub and small birds.

cheers Darrel

 

[foxfish]

Yeah they pair for life & because of their different size they hunt different prey therefor meaning they don't compete with each other - clever "Ah"
I am glad we have the female as the song birds are pretty precious to us - my misses would not be impressed !