Sparrowhawk
Gillian53
Posts: 112
We have plenty of birds visiting our feeders including female Sparrowhawk. Yesterday I saw her sitting on the fence and today I found her flat on her back and dead as a dodo. Very sad. Can they fly into a window, break their neck and manage to fly a short distance? Or did she just fall off the fence?!
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I think birds do sometimes fly away from a window but are too damaged to survive. Internal bleeding maybe
That's tragic Gillian
Sparrowhawks are such beautiful birds. I saw one being mobbed by crows recently and it just nonchalantly dodged them while continuing on its way.
red tail hawks live across the street and keep the birds on their toes. the stellars jays have learned how to imitate the hawks cry and raise hell with all the other birds.
I dont like Sparrowhawks, they were here in the garden on Thursday, loads of scuffling about in the bushes, and only today have the small birds come back to the bird food.
It frightened my cat, he is petrified of them, (he is a wimp though) but he has been ill since then and this morning I took him to the vet with a very high temperature, the vet couldnt find anything else wrong with him and said something had frightened him and he was suffering from stress.
Philippa, you're very lucky to have a Peregrine as a garden bird.
WE have a hobby as a regular visitor. It's been around for some time but I didn't realise what it was til someone cleverer than me pointed it out
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/h/hobby/
I still don't know much about them. One of my winter studies maybe
Hobbies are becoming much more frequent summer visitors in many parts of the country.
I know so little I hadn't realised they were summer visitors Joe
It hasn't gone home yet
, not yesterday at least.
Philippa - I agree about you being lucky having a Peregrine. They are very impressive birds and thankfully spreading eastwards across the UK in recent years like Red Kites and Buzzards have. A pair nested on top of Norwich cathedral this year,a wonderful achievement.
David - you must be in the US? Red-tail hawks are magnificent hunters
Lyn - sorry your cat was upset. I think it comes as a shock to cats when they see birds much bigger than the sparrow-sized birds they hunt. Hope he's feeling better.
Nut - Hobbies are lovely aren't they and such agile flyers
I'm going to make a confession here
When I was young and naive (about 14) I was rail roaded into having and flying a Kestrel. The chap over the road was a falconer and owned a Buzzard. I learned how to fly the Kestrel to a lure,though at the time I never considered the ethics of keeping what are essentially wild birds. I do remember this guy being very anti-RSPB though,which I thought at the time was strange.
I've always been a bird lover but soon learnt that keeping one to use as a pet was not something I was comfortable with. Ever since then I've seen birds as wild and most importantly free.
My experience of Sparrowhawks is very sad......over 2 years they killed 45 of my Doves and tame Pigeons .There was no way we could stop them other than to keep our birds caged up all thetime which I refused to do. Anyone who wonders about the decline in garden birds need look no further than the Sparrowhawk and our pet cats. My only answer was not to re~stock and I so miss them. As far as my garden birds are concerned I sight the bird table in a sheltered difficult position for the Sparrowhawks to attack and most of them get away. The Sparrowhawk is top of the food chain so will continue to grow in numbers whilst other birds decline.