Back garden raptor punch up.

Kess73

The title is exactly what I saw in the last 90 mins or so.

I have a pair of sprawks that are nesting near my house and have had the same female there for a few years now, and the current male is the one she had for the last few seaons and he is tagged.

The male is a bit of a pain in and around my garden as he has a very high ratio of kills to attempted attacks. One day last week he made six attacks in a 30 minute spell (three with me standing in the garden) and made 5 kills. He is also the sprawk that ended up in my kitchen one time after chasing a bird in there and was hell on legs to catch safely and get out.


Anyway today I ended up coming to his aid for the second time if the kitchen incident is taken as helping him.

I was by the kitchen window and I saw the male hawk streaking towards the garden at pace from a distance of about 100 feet and at a height of about 30 feet. Not very stealthy for him but I figured he was trying to do a fly by to scare small birds from the tree so I decided to go out to the garden and discourage him as I had just filled the feeders.

I had just turned to head out the back when I heard a noise and saw a blur of shapes falling into one of my bushes.

The first thing that went through my head was the fecker got one of the blackbirds so I ran out to see what had happened.

When I got out the back there was a battle royale going on at the side of the bush and the shaking was far too great for a simple sprawk attack on a smaller bird. So I headed up, grabbing a yard brush as I did.

When I got there the male sprawk was locked in what looked to be a losing battle againt a peregrine falcon. The sprawk was fighting hard but just did not have the size to get the falcon off of it.

The sprawk seemed to have plenty of life left in him going by how hard he was trying so I made noise and stomped about and pushed the brush end of the brush towards the battle and the peregrine decided that a fight on two fronts was too much and disengaged and took off with ease.

Male sprawk kind of just sat there for a bit. Probably a combination of shock, stress, and soreness. He was for all the world like how a sparrow is when they hit a window.


I stayed out the back with him for a while and in time he folded his wing (I thought it might be broken as it was out at an angle for a little bit) and eyed me in that "WHAT? WHAT? What the hell are you looking at?" manner that sprawks can have.


Then with no warning he just took off at speed and left the garden.


I wondered if he was ok, but within 20 minutes he was back into his routine of trying to attack my smaller regulars, and back to his habit of only retreating as far as the gutter when I go out.

Ungrateful sod.:mad:

cuddlycavies

Fantastic sight. I'd say the Peregrine was after the dead blackbird rather than the hawk. Or if he was after the hawk it was a territorial thing for him. He uses the force of his stoop to kill and will struggle if he doesn't have momentum. There are easier meals for him at this time of year.

Birdnuts

Lucky sod!! - you appear to live in a Raptor hotspot:cool:

recedite

So, do you think the sprawk had spotted the peregrine and was trying to drive it out of his territory? Maybe didn't think too much of the consequences before he acted.

What sort of habitat is this BTW, it sounds like a great spot for birds.

Kess73

recedite wrote: »

So, do you think the sprawk had spotted the peregrine and was trying to drive it out of his territory? Maybe didn't think too much of the consequences before he acted.

What sort of habitat is this BTW, it sounds like a great spot for birds.

Technically my address says I live in the suburbs, but my house backs onto countryside with plenty of trees, hedges, bushes, gorse etc nearby.

Kess73

cuddlycavies wrote: »

Fantastic sight. I'd say the Peregrine was after the dead blackbird rather than the hawk. Or if he was after the hawk it was a territorial thing for him. He uses the force of his stoop to kill and will struggle if he doesn't have momentum. There are easier meals for him at this time of year.

There was no dead blackbird. I had just assumed that the hawk had hit a blackbird as there was a struggle within the bush. It was when I got outside I saw that there was far too much of a struggle going on for it to be a sprawk against a blackbird.

My own guess is that the Sprawk was trying to avoid the Peregrine and was motoring for cover as he was easy to spot and was coming in towards one of my trees at a funny angle compared to his normal approaches. Because I was looking at the sprawk I never saw the Peregrine coming in.

Guessing again, and going by the angle the blur of shapes went into the bush, the peregrine had to have come in at a fairly sharp angle and from above the sprawk. The fact the sprawk had gotten so close to my trees may have seen the peregrine reduce speed before impact. All guesses but it makes sense to me.


The male sprawk was back on his rounds today, just like he was shortly after his tussle yesterday, and his flying ability does not seem to be hampered in the slightest.

The peregrine or maybe peregrines are a newish addition to the area. I spotted one for the first time in the area sometime last year and have only spotted one every month or so since then.

The local kestrels I see a good few times a week and the sprawks I see a number of times each day, sometimes a number of times per hour.


I also think that the peregrine tried it on with the male sprawk due to the male's size compared to that of a female sprawk, especially my regular female sprawk as she is a pretty big specimen.

recedite

Ah right, I thought you meant the peregrine had been perched in the trees prior to the incident. I suppose the sprawk isn't much bigger than a pigeon, and even though we don't usually think of a predator eating another predator, the animals themselves might not draw such distinctions.

cuddlycavies

I agree, pedators will eat each other. The only one to tackle and eat peregrines afaik is the Eagle Owl. He'll eat anything nearly. Useful hunter of cats too, we could use introduction.
I suppose the slate blue back of the sparrowhawk would make him look like a very zippy pigeon from above. I've seen peregrines take birds on the upswing. Whatever the reasons here, it was an unusual spectacle to witness. I'd still put money on a territorial bout.

Kess73

cuddlycavies wrote: »

I agree, pedators will eat each other. The only one to tackle and eat peregrines afaik is the Eagle Owl. He'll eat anything nearly. Useful hunter of cats too, we could use introduction.
I suppose the slate blue back of the sparrowhawk would make him look like a very zippy pigeon from above. I've seen peregrines take birds on the upswing. Whatever the reasons here, it was an unusual spectacle to witness. I'd still put money on a territorial bout.

Yep that would be the most likely reason for me as well, and the peregrine may be part of a pair whose nesting territory has overlapped with the hawks as the falcon hunting territory from their nest covers a hell of a lot more distance than the sprawks.