I have a pair of feet out my back.

Kess73

Well a pair of feet that are attached to a pair of legs, which in turn are now attached to nothing.


My regular male sparrowhawk has upped the size of his prey and has moved onto feral pigeons.


He had killed three in two days now, and has left me a pair of red legs and feet. Charming.

Little bugger cannot lift his kills off of the ground though, so he drags the carcass under a bush to the corner of the wall and takes what he can carry, and zips across to the female in the nest and goes back and forth until she is happy.

The female before she was sitting would dispatch feral pigeons, wood pigeons and various corvids quite easily, but this is the first time that I have noticed the male taking a shine to the large (compared to himself) feral pigeons.

Am guessing that I will see the young sparrowhawks out of the nest somewhere around mid July.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Could he be taking prey that she was used to? Pigeon probably tastes different to greenfinch.:)

Kess73

Edgar Scruffy Hanger wrote: »

Could he be taking prey that she was used to? Pigeon probably tastes different to greenfinch.:)

I would think that he is taking advantage of the increased number of feral pigeons in the area over the last few weeks.

I would imagine there is as much eating on one feral pigeon for the little ones in the nest as there would be in the male bringing in 20 small birds. So the risk of attacking larger prey is being outweighed by the greater reward, in my opinion.

He nailed another one this morning so there is a steady pattern to his attacks now in terms of where he ambushes them and at what time of the day.

He must be bringing in enough food though, as I have hardly seen the female over the last two months, save for the odd blitz on a jackdaw or woodpigeon or when she comes out onto the branch to take food that the male brings.

He can be a right bugger when he is trying to go undetected in the garden though. A number of times I have been out refilling the bird bath or reaching to take a feeder from the tree and he will exploded from the tree or from a nearby bush as I have gotten to close, usually between two or three foot is the distance that he decides is me getting too near. The female has always had the good grace to take off pretty much as soon as I get within 15 feet or so.

You stay at 15 feet away from the male and you get into a staring match with him.

I think I made an enemy for life out of him since the day he got stuck inside the house after he chased a small bird in through an open window and could not get out.:D

trebor28

cool stories kess,
would love to come to your house to see some of this.
any chance of some pics or footage of all this??

Kess73

trebor28 wrote: »

cool stories kess,
would love to come to your house to see some of this.
any chance of some pics or footage of all this??

The female who lives behind the house










The male just after I had to carry him from inside the house and release him outside. Once released he landed on the wall and just glared at me whilst whilst being quite vocal.






The male again. This time hiding and pretending not to notice the hand pushing a cameraphone towards him.





Sorry about the quality of these pics as they were all taken by a cameraphone. I am useless at having the camera on standby, and generally only have the camera when I take the time to plan bringing it anywhere.

trebor28

nothing wrong with them photos!!
id get nothing done if them guys were out the back of my house.

Mothman

I'm thinkng of all those feathers and the comfort they'd give my head at night.....

Great snaps BTW...

caseyann

Great pics beautiful Birds,I would love to have them out back to see.

Kess73

At the moment the male and I are crossing paths maybe two or three times a day. By crossing paths I mean both of us being in the garden at the same time and anything between 15ft to 3ft and normally with a bit of eyeballing going on.

Then there are the visits when I know he is there, due to the mad cries of the house sparrows trying to hide, or when a deathly silence falls upon the garden.

Best of all though, are the times when the swallows spot him taking off and rush to engage him in displays of amazing aerial acrobatics. These are impossible to predict in terms of when it may happen, but when it does I just stand and stare. The swallows win everytime and run him from the area like mini sheriffs chasing a bandit. The sparrowhawk will leave once they start the mobbing as he knows they will just keep following and making noise, thus preventing him from creating an ambush point.

The jackdaws and magpies can get a very different response when they try to harrass him though. Sometimes he ignores them, but other times a magpie may get that bit too close and the sparrowhawk will latch onto it.

The female was the ultimate magpie and jackdaw killer though. She seemed to target them on a regular basis for food, whereas the male only engages them when mobbed. Once she is finished with her motherly duties, then I imagine it will be open season in the area again.

The bravest birds of all when it comes to the sparrowhawk are the coal tits, closely followed by great tits.

I have witnessed many times a coal tit defending it's mate from a sparrowhawk by getting close to the sparrowhawk whilst it is in the tree and fluttering and cheeping madly. I have a fierce soft spot for the coal tits so anytime I spot this I go out the back and disturb the hawk.

Kess73

Mothman wrote: »

I'm thinkng of all those feathers and the comfort they'd give my head at night.....

Great snaps BTW...

Maybe I will start gathering the feathers for you. I will even include all the sticky bits that sometimes get left behind.:D

Smartypantsdig

Kess73 wrote: »

Maybe I will start gathering the feathers for you. I will even include all the sticky bits that sometimes get left behind.:D

Pigeon foot stew ! i know a guy who actually eats road-kill and the leavings of raptors and other predators!!

On topic though, I lived in a house in Harolds Cross and had similar experiences to your own Kess... its never a dull moment really, during the breeding and brooding spell with sparrowhawks!

tomahawk101

Hi folks, regarding sparrowhawk behavior and sightings; nearly anywhere you stand in Ireland today you are standing in a sparrowhawk's territory so most people have this stuff happening in heir back gardens but just don't get to see it as they are just not tuned it.
I have had my big hawks land beside people and they didn't even notice them.
I once stood on a landfill talking to the manager when I saw a merlin come in behind him like a spitfire, rise up a flock of feeding finches, missed the one she tried to take and was gone in a second before I had a chance to say anything.
Now what the site manager saw was me changing my face to one of amazement, looking from his face to his left shoulder, across then to his right shoulder as I followed the falcon with amazed disbelief as it disappeared out of sight. He then walked away brushing the shoulders of his suit. I hadn't even time to shout "Look at the Merlin!" I think he thought I had been looking at his dandruff!!

With regard to catching prey in the summer, it is the little male that does all the work while she is incubating. The male I flew weighed 4.5 ounces, the female weighed 9 ounces. So if she hatches all four eggs and stays to feed these babies that eat more than their own weight everyday until nearly full grown, it's the male that has to catch enough food to feed himself. herself, and the four hungry kiddies. I am no mathematician but that's a lot of work for the little guy. It's no wonder that they take on the odd jackdaw, magpie and pigeon at this time.
It is my opinion that ounce for ounce the European sparrow hawk is one of the fiercest and bravest raptors on earth.
I have written some articles over the years about the female I flew. For those interested you can find them at;

http://www.woodlandsfalconry.com/alice.html
and
http://www.woodlandsfalconry.com/only_a_bird.html
Thanks for reading.
Tom

Kess73

tomahawk101 wrote: »

Hi folks, regarding sparrowhawk behavior and sightings; nearly anywhere you stand in Ireland today you are standing in a sparrowhawk's territory so most people have this stuff happening in heir back gardens but just don't get to see it as they are just not tuned it.
I have had my big hawks land beside people and they didn't even notice them.
I once stood on a landfill talking to the manager when I saw a merlin come in behind him like a spitfire, rise up a flock of feeding finches, missed the one she tried to take and was gone in a second before I had a chance to say anything.
Now what the site manager saw was me changing my face to one of amazement, looking from his face to his left shoulder, across then to his right shoulder as I followed the falcon with amazed disbelief as it disappeared out of sight. He then walked away brushing the shoulders of his suit. I hadn't even time to shout "Look at the Merlin!" I think he thought I had been looking at his dandruff!!

With regard to catching prey in the summer, it is the little male that does all the work while she is incubating. The male I flew weighed 4.5 ounces, the female weighed 9 ounces. So if she hatches all four eggs and stays to feed these babies that eat more than their own weight everyday until nearly full grown, it's the male that has to catch enough food to feed himself. herself, and the four hungry kiddies. I am no mathematician but that's a lot of work for the little guy. It's no wonder that they take on the odd jackdaw, magpie and pigeon at this time.
It is my opinion that ounce for ounce the European sparrow hawk is one of the fiercest and bravest raptors on earth.
I have written some articles over the years about the female I flew. For those interested you can find them at;

http://www.woodlandsfalconry.com/alice.html
and
http://www.woodlandsfalconry.com/only_a_bird.html
Thanks for reading.
Tom

They really are a fearless bird, and calling them fierce is almost an understatement if one gets into a fight or, as in my case, when one gets inside your house chasing a bird.

You are spot on in saying that people probably cross paths with at least one every day here in Ireland and just don't know it.

trebor28

Tomahawk101,
read all about alice.
what a bird, would love to have a bird like that or even see some of the things you have seen.
there is sparrowhawks around me but i rarely see them or if i do i mistake them for kestrels from a distance.
i presume they are not as obvious as a kestrel seeing as a kestrel hovers looking for rodents where as the sparrowhawk seem to try and ambush its prey in some secluded areas.

Kess73

The male has switched back to sparrows again since the weekend, as the garden is loaded with young sparrows each day now and they just don't have the experience to be able to avoid such a practised hunter. So far I have not seen him take one of the newly fledged jackdaws that are quite numerous in the area this year.

Between 11am and 14:30pm I have seen him take four sparrows, with no doubt some more taken that I did not see. One was taken with me in the garden no more than six feet from the sparrow when the male hit it and took it to the ground near me.

By my rough estimates the young sparrowhawks should be starting to fledge sometime during the weekend after the one coming, so three or so weeks after that I should have an explosion of sparrowhawk sightings as the young hawks start to learn and hone their trade in earnest.

Kess73

The young sprawks started to venture from the nest over the last two days.

Yesterday there was two of them coming and going from the tree where the nest is.

Today there is a third, and at one point all three were standing close together on the wall by the base of the tree before making their way back to the nest area. Will be keeping a keen eye out in case there is another fledgling to come. Last year was the best year I have seen for the pair as there were four fledglings then, against the two from the year before that.

The magpies, jackdaws and pigeons have been going nuts at the sight of the extra sprawks


In another two weeks or so, these fledglings will start to go after other birds and start honing their killing skills, but until then they should follow the same routine as the fledglings have every other year of returning to the nest site most nights and will continue to be fed by the adults.

Kess73

I think three is all that there will be this year.

Momma sprawk is back on the scene big time today. She normally does not go on a spree like this until the last fledgling is able to fly. A wood pigeon, a feral pigeon and a young jackdaw have all been nutted since this morning, along with 8 or 9 failed attempts, one of which involved a very near miss between her and I.

I pity the large number of feral pigeons that have come into the area over the last six weeks or so. The female is going to have a field day there until they get scared off.

The new fledged spawks are making the hunting a lot harder for the two adults though, as the young sprawks are making the odd appearance to stretch their wings and to practise their flying, but the minute they do so, everything else in the area darts for cover.

captain_boycott

I can't believe the sparrowhawk is as common as you make out. I'm a avid birdwatcher of many years, and whilst I see kestrel daily, seen quiet a few merlin, many peregrine over the winter months at wildfowl locations, and the occasional buzzard, the sparrowhawk is second only to the hen harrier in terms of how few times I seen one!

Perhaps its less common in the west of Ireland? Or perhaps they are more adventurous/easily observed in urban areas where they might be more accustomed to humans? Or maybe I just need to plant more trees!

Kess73

captain_boycott wrote: »

I can't believe the sparrowhawk is as common as you make out. I'm a avid birdwatcher of many years, and whilst I see kestrel daily, seen quiet a few merlin, many peregrine over the winter months at wildfowl locations, and the occasional buzzard, the sparrowhawk is second only to the hen harrier in terms of how few times I seen one!

Perhaps its less common in the west of Ireland? Or perhaps they are more adventurous/easily observed in urban areas where they might be more accustomed to humans? Or maybe I just need to plant more trees!

The sparrowhawk is a very common raptor in Ireland and generally seen more often than a number of the birds you listed. They are generally an ambush predator though, so spotting one in flight would happen less than say spotting a kestrel hovering as it looks for prey.

For me they are a daily occurance seeing as the nest is just behind my house and I have had a breeding female using the same set of trees for a number of years now so I get to see her, her male, and whatever young fledge each year.