I have spent quite a lot of time just sitting in my garden over the last two weeks while recovering from illness and have been surprised on how often the local pair of Sparrowhawks visit my and my neighbours gardens.
I have seen the female catch 2 feral Pigeons, 3 Collared doves and a Starling. She also lost hold of a Woodpigeon and dropped a Blackbird. The feral Pigeons and Collared Doves have a habit of sitting on top of the roof of my bird table while trying to climb down and reached the food which is protected by 40mm square steel mesh which stops anything bigger than a Starling getting to the food. The female Sparrowhawk flies unseen and low between my house and my neighbours house and reaches the bird table before the Pigeons and Doves can react. The hawk normally ends up on my lawn with its prey or flies to the large Birch tree where it starts to eat its meal.
The male hawk has caught a House sparrow, 1 Goldfinch and a Collared dove. It also uses the same flight path as the female bird to attack the birds around the bird table or on the feeders. It will also perch in a nearby Apple tree then suddenly swoop into the garden and chase the Starlings or Sparrows which are on the feeders.
At 6.30pm this evening 3 Woodpigeons were feeding in a neighbours Cherry tree when the Male Sparrowhawk flew through the tree and hit one of the Wood pigeons full on. Lots of pigeon feathers went up in the air but the hawk bounced off and fell into some of the lower branches before flying off. The startled Woodie flew up and over my garden while regurgitating 4-5 cherrys which it had swallowed whole. The woodpigeons have been spending hours in the Cherry tree each day gorging themselves on the Cherries.
I once watched a male Sparrowhawk trying to finish off a Jackdaw. After about twenty minutes of constant mobbing by the rest of the jackdaw flock both birds went on their way. The noise was amazing and was what bought it to my attention in the first place.
Today i came back to a feral pigeon that had been killed by a sparrowhawk in the garden, apparently only disturbed off it a few minutes earlier I assumed it would have been a female that had killed such large prey, but later i noticed a male sparrowhawk returning to the kill, only to be disturbed again. The carcass was under a hedge, so apart form a few feathers, there was visual evidence of it - so surely the sparrowhawk that returned must have remembered the location of the kill. Has anyone else had any experience of male sparrowhawks taking large prey?
Incidentally, the pigeons don't land in our garden, i'm pretty sure it would have had to have been taken in mid-air (i've seen the female attempt this before)
