Another Sparrowhawk crashing into my window

TopTec

Last year I posted about a female Sparrowhawk crashing into my sunroom window. The poor bird died immediately, it was an awful noise. She was flying full speed at birds using the feeders on the other side of the sunroom and was using the sunroom as cover. Unfortunately she was obviously unaware of the thick triple glazing in the way. The female was one of a pair that were in the forestry nearby.

This morning I threw out some crusts and then was inside when I heard the same awful noise. Knew what it was immediately and below the window found a male Sparrowhawk on its back. It was gasping but had its eyes slightly open. I thought he was a gonner, but put him in the nest box of my chicken coop.

Went back every 10 minutes or so and after several visits found...



Really surprised and relieved to see him alive. I left him a further 10 minutes and let him out and after a couple of hops off he flew towards the forestry.

Made my day.

TT

Capercaillie

TopTec wrote: »

Last year I posted about a female Sparrowhawk crashing into my sunroom window. The poor bird died immediately, it was an awful noise. She was flying full speed at birds using the feeders on the other side of the sunroom and was using the sunroom as cover. Unfortunately she was obviously unaware of the thick triple glazing in the way. The female was one of a pair that were in the forestry nearby.

This morning I threw out some crusts and then was inside when I heard the same awful noise. Knew what it was immediately and below the window found a male Sparrowhawk on its back. It was gasping but had its eyes slightly open. I thought he was a gonner, but put him in the nest box of my chicken coop.

Went back every 10 minutes or so and after several visits found...



Really surprised and relieved to see him alive. I left him a further 10 minutes and let him out and after a couple of hops off he flew towards the forestry.

Made my day.

TT

maybe need to put something up to prevent birds striking window:
http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/featured-stories/15-products-that-prevent-windows-strikes/

TopTec

Capercaillie wrote: »

maybe need to put something up to prevent birds striking window:

Yeah we have tried decals and siloettes but draw the line at netting and dangly string which defeats the object of having the windows in the first place.
In the summertime we move feeders further up the garden but in this particular case I threw some crusts down too near the sunroom. Won't happen again!

TT

Alun

I've had this happen a couple of times too, although I'm convinced on both occasions that it was down to the bird seeing some of my cat's toy mice on the floor just inside the patio doors rather than it swooping towards anything outside them.

Is there anything inside the doors that could be catching their eye?

TopTec

Nah, the raptors use the sunroom as cover. They sit in the trees on one side and then swoop down keeping the building between them and the prey. So they are effectively looking all the way through the sunroom. That was the reason we moved the feeders and tables away from the building.

This particular one regularly takes birds from my garden, he caught a siskin feeding on some grasses that we have in a wildflower meadow part of the garden, and a couple of days ago tried to sneak a chaffinch sitting on the coop at the far end. The chaffinch was knocked of the hutch but managed to fly over the fence pursued by the hawk a couple of feet behind him, dodging and weaving over to the paddock opposite. I think it escaped by diving into some heavy brambles as the hawk reappeared a few seconds later empty clawed.

TT

TedR

Well done to get him up and running again
They are pretty kamikaze when hunting alright

Half-cocked

I used to have trouble with Starlings smacking into my back door. I realized that when taking off from ground level, they could see blue sky through the back door from the roof windows in the kitchen. Do you have a similar set-up that might be causing this?

TopTec

Half-cocked wrote: »

Do you have a similar set-up that might be causing this?

Nope. The Raptors use the whole building as a cover for their ambush as they can see their prey through the windows. Trees one side, prey the other, triple glazing in between. Not a good combination. Hence the 'No feeding' rule close to the cottage.

TT