Garden Killer

Once a rare sight in towns years ago, Sparrowhawks are now common throughout urban areas. 

Today one of my regular pigeon visitors was killed and devoured in my garden by a local female Sparrowhawk. It left three times as I tried to film it, eventually staying long enough to get some shots and short movie clip below.

Disco Saves a Blackbird

About a month ago, I noticed a scattering of dark feathers just outside the Aviary and guessed that a resident garden Blackbird had been nabbed by the Sparrowhawk. 

Later that day I was appalled at the sight of  a poor Blackbird coming close to me for some mealworm. It had obviously been savaged by the Sparrowhawk, and Disco the disabled Duck started squabbling as it got near. I realised what must have happened early that morning. 

The Blackbird would have been worming just outside the aviary and got hit by the hawk. 

Disco would have seen everything from the other side of the aviary mesh with all the ducklings and her protective instinct would have kicked in, making her attack the hawk which was tearing the flesh and skin from the blackbird !  It must have been a violent attack for the hawk to release the blackbird long enough to escape it's clutches. 

Escape from a Sparrowhawk's talons is rare, especially for a smaller bird. 

For weeks the resident Blackbird comes to me several times a day for a high protein feed of dried mealworms. It may be blind or partially sighted in the right eye, but accurately able to pick up the smallest morsels. 

After a month it is healing and surviving well. Both Disco and the blackbird sometimes eat close by, and both share an incredible near miss experience !

Stunned Sparrowhawk

                     Interesting day, I saw Duke chasing 3 swans away that came up to the Swans island. He had no hesitation in seeing them all off while Penny sat on her nest. Later this afternoon knock at the door and a report that a hawk was laying on the ground outside Barron house. I went to investigate and found a stunned Sparrowhawk sitting on the ground.

Had put on a pair of gloves so picked it up and had a quick look. No apparent injuries, so either collided with a window or overhead wires. Within 10 minutes it had recovered enough to let it fly off. Also had a report last night that a Mother duck had been run over and killed in front of Grants Garage, apparently escorting ducklings across the road. I spent half an hour with a friend looking for ducklings this morning without success. I am trying to verify that there was indeed ducklings involved. If anyone can verify , please get in touch.
They would not survive long without their Mother in this cold weather.

Sparrowhawk Kills Rescued Pigeon

It's a hard life being a Pigeon, if your not being shot at, then there's always the predators....Like the Sparrowhawk.

                       I was pretty vexed today when I saw the Sparrowhawk eating a pigeon in my garden. 

It turned out to be the shot pigeon I had treated so successfully a while back and released a few weeks ago.

It was able to fly and had been doing fine until today when the Sparrowhawk singled it out for the kill.

Sparrowhawk Eyes Up My Ducks !

You can tell it's Autumn as the colder longer nights increase the hunt for food. The local Sparrowhawk has increased it's attacks on my garden Sparrows, and today was eyeing up my call ducks.

Having recently built a duckpond , it proved it's worth today when they hurriedly jumped in to escape the Sparrowhawk.
I heard a commotion and looked out the window to see the hawk wondering if it had chance to get one ! 

Near Miss

My attention was drawn to a commotion outside my window today. Looking out I saw the reason why, a Sparrowhawk had a near miss on a target next to the window. After I managed to get a shot it flew off, and I discovered two terrified birds under the bush, a Blackbird  and a Sparrow, they live another day !

Autumn Rain Arrives

With what has been a non existent summer, Autumn seems to have arrived early as well ! I can honestly say this has been poorest Summer I can ever recall, with real summer days that could be counted on one hand!
I have also noticed the distinct lack of insect life this year, even my own garden is usually buzzing, but not this year.

Yesterdays heavy rain has dumped the usual overflow of grey drain water and contents into the river and moved some debris from upstream.

 A tree is currently blocking the moat but I am hopeful that my Pal Bill Pirie, with his trusty chain saw will soon remove it.

The mother duck shown on previous post has lost one duckling and I don't fancy the chances of the last wee one, with the long cold nights, lack of insect life and Crows !  
The birds have taken to the island haven with the high tides and river in spate.

Meanwhile my local Sparrowhawk is surveying the local prey !

Young Birds

The past week I have seen several casualties of young herring gulls.

Not everyone's favourite bird, but I don't like to see them getting run over, sometimes deliberately so. The other day I had to fish one out of the river for the SPCA, and a few days before that picked one off the street with a shattered wing. I have also seen several flattened on my street which is narrow and one way - so no excuse to be run over.

There are other species which are a lot luckier, like a young Sparrowhawk I saw the other day sitting under my feeder tree!

Garden Killer

The Small birds are having a tough time  in my garden lately, due to the Sparrowhawks. They have managed to kill a few at my feeder tree and have now taken to 
regular visits - 

depriving the small birds of their winter food supply. 

Sitting on the tree branches is not the best tactic and guarantees no visitors for food !

Bittersweet Week

After nurturing the woodpigeons with such care  for the past few weeks, I had hoped their release to the wild would be OK. Sadly, Alan the most able of the two has been killed by a Sparrowhawk the day after release. 

I found his remains in Viewfield near the tennis courts, which was the direction I saw him fly to when released. Woody returned the next day and I was relieved to see it was alive, he has since been away again but returned again today. He is not yet savvy to the wild, and I will keep him in the Aviary for a while longer until he is more mature.  

The paraplegic pigeon has also returned with the flock of feral pigeons and has survived being released. This bird you would not have given Tuppence for his chances, yet he has survived and can fly as well as any other pigeon, it's walking that he has a problem with.

 Meanwhile Woody is company for the miracle duckling with the broken leg. Astonishingly the leg has healed into a usable limb once again ! After consulting the vet and our avian adviser Sue, I kept it confined to the coop for 5 days with no disturbance of any kind, and gave it painkiller medication once a day.

 It sat motionless for much of the time only moving to eat and drink.

Incredibly after the 5 days I let it into the Aviary to see it walk, using both legs and feet albeit with a limp. It can also paddle with the broken leg and I have seen it scratch its face with it, and jump down from a ramp.

 Sue was planning to take the duck into her Sanctuary where she has several one legged ducks, in the event that this duckling was going to end up the same way. I will now return this duckling to the river very soon.

With the arrival of the Cygnets, and the death of Alan the woodpigeon, this has been a bittersweet week for me.  

Sparrowhawk at Work

Just uploaded another short film to Youtube, of two Sparrowhawks in action earlier this year.

Most people if they're lucky get a fleeting glimpse of a Sparrowhawk in action, I was very lucky to see two separate incidents of sparrowhawk strikes this year and have the camera handy as well ! The film can be seen on this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXSkCZ01Bls

Sparrowhawk

Having my morning coffee in the living room, I glanced outside to see a Sparrowhawk strike a sparrow in front of the window. The talons were firmly wrapped round the poor bird and the hawk started stripping the feathers with lightning speed. I grabbed the camera but could not move the window plant for fear of chasing the Sparrowhawk, this has resulted in some plant colour reflection on the images. It appeared to be a young male Sparrowhawk and it made short work of the sparrow. I took a short video of the action (see below) before moving position to try and get better still shots. I managed a few pics before the hawk spotted me and flew off with its kill. This Sparrowhawk was smaller then the one last year - looks like I'm going to lose some of my garden visitors again. Nairn has no shortage of Sparrowhawks, with an abundance of feral pigeons and young birds to eat ! I don't suppose the sparrows get a chance to see the fearsome look on the hawks face , those talons are very long and needle sharp!