Sparrowhawk

Rancid

Today I saw my first Sparrowhawk.
I've 4 bird feeders in the garden and I get a lot of blue tits, coal tits, a few great tits, goldfinches, greenfinches and lots of sparrows, basically the garden is always full of birds.
I looked out the kitchen window and there it was, sitting at the edge of the little pond, unmistakably a Sparrowhawk. I think i could see that it was holding on to something, it flew to the grass and then took off into the trees with what looked like a little sparrow.

Is it likely to return to the garden?

cuddlycavies

Yes, You'll find that he's been there before. The attacks are so fast that unless you are looking out at pricisely the time of attack, they will be gone. They will swoop in low using walls and hedges as cover and take birds as they alight from the bird table, kill instanly and be gone in seconds.

Rancid

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Yes, You'll find that he's been there before. The attacks are so fast that unless you are looking out at pricisely the time of attack, they will be gone. They will swoop in low using walls and hedges as cover and take birds as they alight from the bird table, kill instanly and be gone in seconds.

It was a weird feeling, delight at actually seeing a Sparrowhawk and then the instant realisation that it was there to catch its dinner.
What an elegant bird, nevertheless.

Kess73

As cuddlycavies has said, that Sprawk has been there before, and the only way you will know it is around is if you either see it's attacks, or find out where it's vantage and ambush points are. If you have collared doves/Blackbirds/thrush in the area, then you may come out some day and find a bundle of feathers in one spot where the sprawk plucked it's prey before carrying it off.


The males tend to focus on the likes of sparrows, tits, finches etc, whereas the females will take those birds and birds up to the size of collared doves on a regular basis.


I have a sprawk nest (well what passes as a nest as they tend to just make a flat platform in a tree)about 100 yards from where I live, and have had a breeding female in that rough location for three years, so see a lot of them, and when in season I see the juveniles also.


If your bird comes a lot you wil get to see some amazing aerial work, as they can fly through bushes and trees where you would have presumed that they could not fit, and they will do it at amazing speeds. They will also hunt on foot when they have too, and I have seen them chase smaller birds under hedges on foot.

If you end up with a very large female, as I have here, then you may also see that birds to the size of a magpie can be attacked and killed by a female sprawk. Which was something I would not have believed until I saw an attack last summer.

Rancid

Yes, thinking about it, I doubt that this is its first visit.
I would guess that the ivy on the side wall is a perfect ambush point for it as a lot of the sparrows and tits hang around there.
So far I haven't come across bundles of feathers in the garden. Not too many blackbirds around and only a very few collared doves. Plenty of pigeons, though!

I'll certainly keep an eye out for return visits or the signs thereof.
Thanks!

boneless

They are wonderful birds! If you get a chance, read Michael Viney's column from the Irish Times Weekend supplement last Saturday...

sesswhat

Kess73 wrote: »

If you end up with a very large female, as I have here, then you may also see that birds to the size of a magpie can be attacked and killed by a female sprawk. Which was something I would not have believed until I saw an attack last summer.

Saw this just this morning. Four magpies were mobbing a hawk in the distance. There was a bit of back and forth as the hawk would turn on one of them from time to time. Eventually one magpie became separated and the Sparrowhawk chased it in and out and all along a hedgerow. This went on for a few minutes but I couldn't see what the eventual outcome was.

This is likely to be the same bird that regularly takes collared doves from my neighbours garden.

Reisman

Kess73 wrote: »

If you end up with a very large female, as I have here, then you may also see that birds to the size of a magpie can be attacked and killed by a female sprawk. Which was something I would not have believed until I saw an attack last summer.

Now that is something I would love to see! Had one in the garden a couple of years ago, not sure if it was a male or female, but I saw it come in to mine and the neighbours garden a couple of times without catching anything. Then one day I came home from work, opened the kitchen curtains to the back garden and there it was, sparrows flying from the makeshift birdbath and the sparrowhawk rising with one of them in its tallons. Amazing, I had never seen anything like this before in real life. I never knew this type of thing went on in a run of the mill suburban back garden! Quite turned me on to the whole raptors thing and I can't get enough of them since. Unfortunately though I haven't seen a sparrowhawk in my garden since that time around two years ago.:(

Reisman

boneless wrote: »

They are wonderful birds! If you get a chance, read Michael Viney's column from the Irish Times Weekend supplement last Saturday...

Do you know if it's online anywhere boneless?

boneless

^^ I assume on the IT website but I don't subscribe unfortunately... poor student!!

Reisman

Me neither, wouldn't mind but I'd have seen it most weeks, ah well if anyone has it and fancies scanning it up, sorry I'm a newbie on here is that allowed?

Kess73

sesswhat wrote: »

Saw this just this morning. Four magpies were mobbing a hawk in the distance. There was a bit of back and forth as the hawk would turn on one of them from time to time. Eventually one magpie became separated and the Sparrowhawk chased it in and out and all along a hedgerow. This went on for a few minutes but I couldn't see what the eventual outcome was.

This is likely to be the same bird that regularly takes collared doves from my neighbours garden.

Once the hawk got the magpie into the hedgerow, it would only be a matter of time before it locked on.

That magpie did not have a quick death.


My big female was in action again, and after saving a jackdaw from her yesterday, she killed one today. Nothing in the area will have a go at mobbing her save one species. The Jackdaws and carrion crows bolt whenever she is about, and all the smaller guys like the starlings, blackbirds etc all seek cover.


The one species that does mob her and divebomb her in the air?



Swallows.


They are like little fighter planes buzzing her, and zipping away.

Reisman

Kess73 wrote: »

The one species that does mob her and divebomb her in the air?



Swallows.


They are like little fighter planes buzzing her, and zipping away.

Amazing. Swallows are incredible fliers. Always exhilarating to watch.

Kess73

Reisman wrote: »

Amazing. Swallows are incredible fliers. Always exhilarating to watch.

Them with a sparrowhawk is a show in itself.

They come so close with each attempt. And if they irritate the hawk, then an amazing show of aerial acrobatics follows, as the sparrowhawks are amazing fliers too.