Hi A kestrel has taken a keen interest in my 'candelabra' style bird feeder frightening all the other birds away. Is there anyway of protecting the birds whilst they are feeding ?
Hi and welcome to the forum ... are you sure it's a Kestrel, sounds more like a Sparrowhawk behaviour? Can you get a pic? Here is a link to ID both
www.youtube.com/watch
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hi Wendy - Got a photo but don't know how to attach to the post. But looking in my1960 bird book it certainly may be a sparrow hawk the back looks more grey than brown. However it doesn't stay still long enough for me to get a reasonable photo. Its taken to roosting on the metal roof of our dormer window, very eerie scratching and fluttering in the middle of the night!
Does sound more like Sprawk, where are you trying to post your pic from, phone, tablet, laptop?
Laptop - tried copy and paste but it just vanishes
Open the media box bottom of reply box, pic needs to be less than 4mb put 500 in first box and nothing in second one
Spikes were trying(failing) to keep the squirrels off - left them as birds like perching on them
Hi Staffsbirdie
We all get them, they may only get lucky one in ten tries so as hard as it is to see them catch something they have to eat too
Also don’t forget Kestrels are a schedule 1 protected species. Lots of wildlife take other species. That may sound hard from me! But that’s true and it’s fact!
Regards,
Ian.
Would not dream of harming the bird (it was a sparrow hawk by the way) - just wanted to see if I could protect the flocks of siskins, tits, various finches and the ground feeding birds that thrive on the other birds dropped food. Haven't seen most of them for days.
Many species will be thinning out now to head back to breeding territories. Possibly coincidence that bird numbers have dropped off at a time when the sparrowhawk has become a regular. Even if feeders are 'protected', hawks are very good at catching birds away from them. They do very occasionally catch swifts and bats!