Sparrowhawk

Fishy65

Not exactly gardening and I know some might be upset at the thought, but I spent the best part of three quarters of an hour watching a female sparrowhawk strip the carcass of a collared dove. I was in the kitchen so she didn't see me. I know nature can be cruel but she was so beautiful and I was honoured she chose our garden.

Dovefromabove

😊 👍 ... as you say ... nature often isn't pretty, but it’s always wonder-ful 😃

Bijdezee

I wish it would thin out the population here a bit  pigeons I mean. I did see two buzzards wheeling about in the sky yesterday. They dont hunt unfortunately just scavenge I believe. We have so many wood pigeons, doves etc here. 

purplerallim

Our sparrow hawk has taken at least three wood pigeon this summer, but the numbers don't appear to have been affected. 

Dovefromabove

Bijdezee said:

I wish it would thin out the population here a bit  pigeons I mean. I did see two buzzards wheeling about in the sky yesterday. They dont hunt unfortunately just scavenge I believe. We have so many wood pigeons, doves etc here. 

Doves?!?!?! ..... 😱😭 🕊 

😉 

Fishy65

The common buzzard both hunts and scavenges. Rabbits are a particularly favourite prey along with small rodents etc. Both wood pigeons and collared doves are present in high numbers. Turtle doves are increasingly rare though. 

Lyn

Buzzards will take a small cat. We have quite a few here, they stick inside their own territory, never moving further away,  I love to see them teaching their baby to fly and glide. 
I don’t like sparrow hawks, they take small birds and then I don’t  see any birds for about a week, scares them all off. 

purplerallim

Only the males take blackbirds or smaller, that is why we have only lost wood pigeons as we have a female. It only keeps the rest away for an hour or two then the rest of the birds all come back, including pigeons.

Big Blue Sky

I wish we had some of those birds of prey here! The next door neighbour keeps feeding pigeons by scattering chunks of white bread on her lawn, so their population is constantly increasing. When they all sit on her roof it looks like a scene from a Hitchcock movie 😲
A sparrowhawk or two would be very welcome 😊

Hostafan1

Lyn said:

Buzzards will take a small cat. We have quite a few here, they stick inside their own territory, never moving further away,  I love to see them teaching their baby to fly and glide. 
I don’t like sparrow hawks, they take small birds and then I don’t  see any birds for about a week, scares them all off. 

I bet cats kill more small birds than buzzards. Give me buzzards any day.

Fairygirl

Me too @Hostafan1. 
We had a sparrowhawk regularly at the last house. It didn't seem to stop the little birds visiting though.
There's a misguided woman who does that here too @Big Blue Sky. Seagulls, pigeons [including a handful of the street variety] and the usual corvids all congregate round her house. Glad I don't live next to her.