Am I right in thinking the larger female sparrowhawk takes larger prey than the male sparrowhawk (which only takes sparrow size birds) I think I might have read this somewhere but I am not sure
Kind wishes
Ian
Judith Smith said
Mon Nov 27 9:32 PM, 2006
In both the 2003 and 2002 GM bird reports, there are records of Sparrowhawks drowning prey - a Starling in a birdbath at Atherton, and a Blackbird in the R. Beal at Shaw in 2002.
Ian McKerchar said
Sun Nov 26 7:42 PM, 2006
Jimmy,
there was something fairly recently about similar behaviour by Sparrowhawks in one of the birding journals, can't remember which off the top of my head but Judith may remember better. Either way it's a fair sized prey for a Sparr', bet the Lapwing didn't expect that!
Jimmy Meadows said
Sun Nov 26 6:48 PM, 2006
just a note about something unusual today at red seas when i saw a f sparrowhawk take a lapwing out in flight nothing unusual about that i know but it then landed in a flooded part of the area and proceeded to drown it by holding it underwater for about 5mins it looked to me that it was something the sparrowhawk was used to doing when it caught anything of any size in that area , jimmy meadows
Am I right in thinking the larger female sparrowhawk takes larger prey than the male sparrowhawk (which only takes sparrow size birds) I think I might have read this somewhere but I am not sure
Kind wishes
Ian
In both the 2003 and 2002 GM bird reports, there are records of Sparrowhawks drowning prey - a Starling in a birdbath at Atherton, and a Blackbird in the R. Beal at Shaw in 2002.
Jimmy,
there was something fairly recently about similar behaviour by Sparrowhawks in one of the birding journals, can't remember which off the top of my head but Judith may remember better. Either way it's a fair sized prey for a Sparr', bet the Lapwing didn't expect that!