• Cunir
  • 3 Nov 2021 7:27 PM
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Have you ever seen a Sparrowhawk take a Wood Pigeon from your garden?

  • tony
    We regularly get visited by Sparrowhawks, both male & female. I have seen the female take a woodie and the male take collared doves. I posted a picture of one with a collared dove right outside our patio windows on here a couple of weeks ago.
    We regularly have piles of feathers around the garden so dont always see the action and have watched the sprawk pluck and eat a woodie on the decking next to our pond.


    Tony

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/wherryman/

  • Gardenbirder
    Thanks, everyone, for your stories of close encounters with Sparrowhawks.

    Kath, I think if I were you I might still consider putting in some cover for the birds. Just because a Sprawk might dive into a hedge or other cover (and some actually do as other posters have observed) does not mean that all Sprawks will do that on every hunting mission. I imagine that like much else in life, it takes practice to get it right. And if there are a few bushes and/or trees in which to seek shelter, that will help most of your small birds on most Sprawk visits. Also, if a small bird can dive into some cover, then it has a better chance of leaving that cover on the opposite side from where the Sprawk is and flying unobserved into other cover farther away, possibly in another garden or into any nearby woodland or brown-field scrubland (which often plays host to a remarkable amount of wildlife). A friend of ours has put mesh of some sort over his bushes to provide safe roosting for the small birds which visit his feeders. The mesh is large enough for Robins and Blackbirds to get through it but too small to permit a Sparrowhawk to pass through. The bushes are wide enough that a Sprawk cannot reach completely through it to grab a small bird. It is not the most attractive thing to look at, but it serves the purpose for which he installed it. It is really a very large-sized guardian feeder cage, protecting not feeders but some very good-sized bushes in which small birds can shelter and feel safe. I seem to remember that the mesh is attached to posts and possibly to the top of part of his boundary fence and not simply draped over the bushes.

    Dave, thanks for clarifying that the enclosure for the chickens had a 'roof' which was not really a roof, but a strung loose mesh of some sort. Sorry, I thought you were implying a building/shed sort of thing. Was this a pen with plastic netting or wire mesh sides and some sort of makeshift 'roof' and not an actual building? That would be unsafe and not just from Goshawks or Sparrowhawks. I know of one chicken run (shed for roosting plus wire mesh-walled outer area open to the weather but no roof on that bit). The side wire mesh walls were six feet high and a fox easily climbed over and killed most of the chickens. The only chickens who survived the fox attack were the only ones who had not panicked but remained on the perches which were about 4 feet above the floor of the shed. The shed door was open into the outdoor run/pen so that the chickens could come and go as they liked. After the fox attack the owner bought more chickens and put a proper small-meshed roof over the top of the entire thing and no more fox visits.

    Kind regards, Ann

  • Dave - CH

    In reply to Kath10:

    Kath10 said:
    was told to get more cover for the birds as my garden is too open etc.

    I haven't seen the garden, Kath, but "more cover" is reasonable advice. 

    A bird of prey will certainly get prey "regardless". If not, it will die (and lots do, I believe). But cover gives many birds a fighting chance, and may---coincidentally---make birds more comfortable in your garden, which might be nice for you.

    Dave 

  • Dave - CH

    In reply to Mike B:

    Michael B said:
    sloppy stockmanship

    My thoughts too, Mike.

    Actually, the hut is inside the enclosure but forms part of one of its walls (the window the Goshawk escaped through is the edge of the enclosure).

    The door was open because in cold weather the chickens sometimes decide to stay inside the hut.

    My thought was that the string protection on the roof was a bit... optimistic. It will keep, say, a kite out, but not (so it seems) accipiter. And if the enclosure walls are solid chain-link, a badger could get in there in seconds if there's no roof. (Not sure if they're fond of chicken...)

    But, you know, there are some people who it's best not to question.

    I just hope the Goshawk is OK.

  • Kath10

    In reply to Gardenbirder:

    Thanks Ann that is a really good idea.

    Have never thought of that so thank you.

    Kath xx
  • Kath10

    In reply to Dave - CH:

    Thanks dave for your very good advice.

    We have a salix tree that we are hoping will come back next year as didn't come back this year so not sure if we have killed it by moving it from the back garden to the front as thought it was a lovely tree for the birds to sit in, which they do really love even with only branches they always land in there first and then onto the feeders, we have spent so much money last year and bought a cherry tree, a willow, and a plum tree, thinking would help but they have been very slow growing and although they love to sit in them and on the branches it is NOT COVER!!! I need a ready made bush or hedge for them to go into as these small trees aren't going to protect them. We have planted hedges across the garden but nothing is coming of them, will take years and years to grow by the looks of them.

    It is not for me trying and spending the money on it, its just so difficult with the size of the garden...

    Photo of said garden to follow so you can see what I am talking about..

    Kath xx
  • Kath10

    This is how open and small my garden is....

  • Kath10

    Hedges that have hardly grown since last year..

  • Kath10

    The salix tree that the birds love to sit in....

  • Dave - CH

    In reply to Gardenbirder:

    Gardenbirder said:
    Was this a pen with plastic netting or wire mesh sides and some sort of makeshift 'roof' and not an actual building?

    Not entirely sure, Ann. But I'm fairly sure the enclosure will be getting a roof sometime soon.

    Takes a bit of thinking to protect coops from climbing, digging in, etc. I'm sure our friends will be thinking a bit harder following their "visit".