Look who came to visit

[alan-d]

My wife looked out the window to see this

 

Mad rush to get my camera, no time to play with settings and had to take it through a closed window from the other side of the room.

 

Just made it

 

http://www.al-d.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/sh1.jpg

 

http://www.al-d.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/sh2.jpg

 

By the way - it's a Sparrowhawk in case you were wondering

[featured_spectre]

nice, we have a nest near my work, best thing I saw was the sparrow hawk take a pigeon out in midflight

[localzuk]

The normal visitors we get here are the neighbours cats, frogs and the occasional newt making its way down from the pond.

[Dos_Box]

Great pictures! I almost had a Sparrowhawk take off my head the other summer. My wife and I were out for a walk along the edge of some woods near our home and one missed us by about a foot and went smashing into a hedge, cue some frantic sqawking and activity then it flies out with a song thrush between its talons. Very impressive....unless your a song thrush that is.

Not for nothing are they known as the hedgerow assasin.

[solitaire89]

That's a stunner! We have a pair that nest somewhere near us. Don't get to see them that close though - the best we get is when they sit on the roof of the house just behind us. Great photos!

[alan-d]

We have a couple of bird feeder stations in the garden which is frequented by the local sparrows and other birdies. Last summer I caught a glimpse of what I though may be a sparrowhawk but not enough to be certain.

 

At least I have an explanation as to why the sparrow population seems to have dropped over winter from around 20 birds to 10 or so. I suspect the winter weather would have taken some though.

 

@ DB - Is that when you decided to get your hair cut?

[jedmondson]

our cats brought in a small Sparrowhawk last year. we think it must of flown into a window and was knocked out. we opened the conservatory door and it flew out.

[broc]

Good pictures... well done.

 

In my experience they usually stay just long enough for your to find the camera/binoculars & then fly off

 

I have some video of our neighbourhood sparrowhawk plucking a collared dove in our garden.... feathers everywhere.

 

When we had snow just after Christmas I tried for ages to get a photo of a Brambling that kept coming into our garden to feed.

[elsiegee40]

Beautiful pics

 

Apparently sparrowhawk numbers are on the increase in towns. The RSPB have put this down to people hanging out bird feeders ... those squirrel-proof cage-type peanut feeders attract just the kind of food sparrowhawks like and they can pick them off easily as they can't escape so quickly!

[mac_shinobi]

Beautiful pics

 

Apparently sparrowhawk numbers are on the increase in towns. The RSPB have put this down to people hanging out bird feeders ... those squirrel-proof cage-type peanut feeders attract just the kind of food sparrowhawks like and they can pick them off easily as they can't escape so quickly!

 

There's all those people with those peanut feeders thinking they are being nice to the birds / wild life

 

Great pix btw

 

@ Dos_Box : LOLOL @ hedgerow assasin haha

[steve_nfi]

Nice Pics.

 

We used to get one come to our garden regularly because we had lots of bushes the other side of our garden wall which housed hundreds of sparrows. It used to go crashing in there and come out with its prey then sit on top of one of my bird feeders and rip it apart.

Don't see it now though because the council have taken all the bushes away and destroyed a recovering community of sparrows.

[mattmoo]

We had a deer run through the academy once last year. Strange thing is we are in the middle of leicester so where it came from I dont know

 

matt

[broc]

All we get at my school are gulls, hoovering up the food dropped by the students. They always look miserable during holiday periods