Sparrowhawk (Oh! Not again)

[thud]

Hi all,

It's quiet around the garden at the moment - I don't think I have seen so few birds around our tree before. Perhaps not so surprising when you've been adopted by this sort of monster...

[Jandy]

Brilliant pics, Thud. My favourite is the middle one where he's looking over his shoulder.

[thud]

Hi Jandy - thanks.

I'd swear his head goes around 360 degrees! You'd think, from a snap, that he's sitting there calm and relaxed. He's not! His head swivels to track anything that moves, up, down, left, right. The only time he''s relatively still is when he's glaring straight into the camera.

[Mobee]

I am getting concerned at the lack of birds visiting my garden. They left as usual in the summer and returned very briefly a few weeks ago. Since then they have vanished. Strangely the sparrowhawk still makes regular sorties looking for lunch but the cupboard is bare. I used to get a lot of blackbirds feasting on the many apples from my tree but now the only regulars are a couple of dunnock and some woodpigeons. My neighbours gardens are the same.We visited our daughter in Hampshire two weeks ago and her garden was full of birds. I think we will have to move down south.
Has anyone else the same problem?

Maureen.

[thud]

Hi Mobee,

Our Blackbirds are just starting to return, within the last week or ten days - in their best suits too.. I think they're a month or so late this year, but looking around the hedgerows there still seems to be a lot of food about.

We have the Dunnocks and (far too many) Collared Doves but our pair of Wood Pigeons have been missing. Late summer / autumn we had a sizable flock of mixed finches, mainly Greenfinches (with fewer Goldfinches and Chaffinches), but the hawk has taken quite a few and the rest have got the message I think.

[Jack]

Lovely Shots!
I walked into the kitchen last week to find our resident Sparrow Hawk perched on top of the peanut feeder - not 15ft from the window, but, typically, the camera was on charge!:mad:

[thud]

Thanks Jack.

He was becoming quite a problem. I had convinced myself he wasn't being too sucessful but when I ventured up to the compost bins there was quite a mound of feathers - Greenfinch and an odd Goldfinch.

Odd thing is, since the Blackbirds came back he has disappeared!

[Jack]

Well, it's all part of Life's Rich Pageant.
I love to see these birds; but we have to remember that for them it's a battle for survival every day.