Murder in the garden - not for the squeamish

[robbie]

It's natures way I suppose,
Last year my wife kept on telling me she had seen an albino starling in amoungst a large flock of normal coloured ones, then one morning she calls me all excited and there, just outside the window in the field, is the flock with the white bird feeding happily, "see I told you so".. then BANG, from the forest a falcon dives in, smashes into the albino with such force that they rolled completely over twice!!, the falcon gets back his balance and is about to take off when one of the barn cats intervenes and pounches on his prize and relieves him of it, the cat must have been stalking the flock and was ready to make his move.
I had a camera in my hand, but it was all over in less than 5 seconds, O boy the look on her face was priceless!!!

Robbie.

[DispatchDragon]

How ironic

Tag and I were walking to school this morning when he spotted a large red tail Hawk (female) gliding around at a fairly high altitude....
He has become very interested in birds recently...(the feathered variety) he asked what the hawk was looking for , and I told him breakfast,
probably one of the myriad pigeons that inhabit Vegas (The redtails ancestors were here LONG before pigeons) anyway to make a long story short , she stooped on a flock of pigeons (easy pickings) and the usual explosion of feathers marked breakfast for her family....Tag rather than be squeamish said -- she does that so quickly -- I told him the pigeon probably didnt even know what hit it....


Thanks for the great photo's he is a beautiful specimen


Leif

[thehappyotter]

Nice photos Ian.

Not sure how far they venture from home, I've seen one in my garden too, could be the same one.

[simondix]

Second set looks like a female. Theyare a lot larger. As to living on the knife edge that is quite true. There are documented cases of Sparrowhawks falling out of the air due to starvation. I picked up one that was seen to fall out of the sky into a bush. It was completely emaciated and died later. It's alright being on the top of the food chain, but it is a greasy pole.

If you feed the birds and get regular Sparrowhawk visits take it as a backhanded compliment on running a good bird table. You probably save quite a few birds from death so why begrudge the odd one being picked off.

Just for your info a long standing study on bird mortality in a wood in the UK found that mortality was just about the same for small birds whether there were Sparrowhawks or not.


So endeth my geek bit of the day.

[fighterpilot]

Yeah, its not sparrowhawks that affect small bird numbers in urban areas its much more likely to be down to the domestic moggie!

Richard

[simondix]

It's certainly not cats that have affected House Sparrow and Starling numbers in urban areas. I know of birders having to go to certain locations now to get House Sparrows on their year lists. Cats do kill a lot but not enough to affect the population drastically.

Lack of suitable habitat and natural food, especially insects in the breeding season, seems to be the problem.

[simondix]

Leif is it Coopers' Hawk that is your nearest equivalent to our Sparrowhawk. I know Red-tail is Buzzard family.

[jonesey2k]

Fantastic shots there! These really are amazing birds. I do feel sorry for the poor things they feed on but that's just the way it works.
We have a pair mincing about where I live and it's not uncommon to find piles of feathers from various finches in the garden from time to time.
A few weeks ago one of them took out a Collard Dove right in from of me in the conservatory!

Addendum: I spotted 5 Buzzards circling overhead yesterday too!

[ianhind]

Thanks for all the comments. Initial photos were taken with a Nikon D70s using a Nikon zoom lens at its maximum of 300mm. Then I changed to an older 450mm fixed focal length lens - only problem with that is I have to set the camera to Manual = no auto-focus and no auto-metering. So considering I took all the later shots using manual focus and guessing the light, I am well pleased with the results. I do have an old light meter but sometimes there just isn't time!

And as an addendum, who was this? Taken almost exactly 6 years ago using a point and shoot handheld Ixus 400 through a spotting scope - hence the softer focus and circular framing. I'm guessing a female?

[fighterpilot]

Yeah thats a female spar. Great shots.

Richard