Naturewatch...... just had a...

sparrowhawk on our bird table.
Stood there, had a rest, a nibble and flew off.

 

I suppose spotting all the tits and robins that usually frequent your bird table it must have thought you'd prepared an all you can eat buffet.

 

Since I retired, watching & feeding the birds in our garden has been a wonderfully pleasing and relaxing pastime for us. Especially now with the onset of Winter. We've never been fortunate enough to see a sparrowhawk, though.

 

Did anyone see the sparrowhawk footage on The Hunt last night? Stunning and fascinating in equal measure.

 

A bit like a bird version of Taybarns?

 

You could be right !
It must look like Picadilly (?) Circus from up above..... sparrows, blue tits, great tits, starlings, robins, goldfinches, blackbirds, grey doves, finches all fighting and scrabbling around the feeders.
So long as it leaves our (now) resident nuthatch alone !

 

How tall are they standing? Never seen one

 

I was thinking something more up-market like Cosmo.

 

Sparrowhawks are no strangers to my and surrounding gardens. TBH you can get prior warning of their arrival as all other bird life just seem to disappear. Its as if they have some sort of code which alerts them of danger.

Fearsome looking birds when standing proudly on the fence.

 

I can beat that. Was "working" from home during the Summer and happened to look out of the window. Sparrowhawk on the back lawn, eating what remained of a juvenile wood pigeon that it had obviously caught. Managed to film it on the video camera for about three minutes before it flew off, amazing. Right load of dirty guts and feathers left on the lawn afterwards :-(

 

I have seen a sparrow hawk a few times in the garden in the old house. The like bird tables. On one occasion it was,chasing a sparrow (as they do) but the sparrow flew in to a thick hedge and thus lived to fight another day. I have also seen one eating a small brown bird in my garden. It left the wrappings for me t clear up.

 

Do you mean how big is a sparrowhawk?
They are surprisingly small, just a bit bigger than a blackbird, similar to a grey dove, so about 9 inches or so. However when they stand up tall to have a good look around they have long legs so maybe get to about 12 inches. They have vivid yellow eyes that miss NOTHING !
As I recounted a few weeks ago I was out doggie walking and saw a bird flapping in the grass ahead of me. It couldn't get off the ground and I caught up to it. I picked it up in both hands and took it back home to see if I could help it. Whilst carrying it it was quite calm so I got a good look at it, , obviously a bird of prey, small beak, mottled breast and those yellow eyes. I initially thought it was a kestrel... what do I know... until the animal hospital told me it was a young sparrowhawk.
What a privilege to see one, and hold one, something quite special at the time. It had an injured wing and to start with looked a bit miserable and dishevelled, but by the time I had left it at the "doctors" it was back on both feet, standing high and proud and giving me the full face stare !
What a bird.

 

Stunning creatures aren't they? Regularly see feathers in out garden at Carlton. Saw this on next doors garage back in April. And the other using the feeder last autumn.





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We had an 'infestation' of starlings (about 60) that kept descending on the garden every evening. One day a sparrowhawk descended, got one, and rest flew off. In the morning, we checked for remains, and all that was left was the beek! A starling has not been seen in the garden since; and for that matter neither has a sparrowhawk.

 

That's happened in our garden 2 years ont trot, Pigeon the victim both times.

 

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That might go a long way to explaining where all the birds have gone. I live in cudworth and off late i have noticed a lack of birds in our garden. We use to get a really good variety then this morning going out into the garden i noticed a load of feathers scattered over the lawn, on further inspection thinking a cat might be the culprit for the killing i discovered just the beak nothing else strange

 

Saw loads of buzzards whilst up in the lakes last week and I kid you not saw what we first thought to be a large pheasant was in fact a very big wild turkey.