THE LIFE OF SPARROWHAWKS

The elusive sparrowhawk,i have spent the last 5 years living with this beautiful bird in the wild,and filming its

behaviour lots never been seen,a lot of data is incorrect on this bird,so i am making a film of its life throughout the year.

wildlife film makers say virtually impossible,so im going to prove them wrong,if sparrowhawks are about your garden dont worry it means the song bird population is thriving.

all birds where i study this pair,nest within 3 to 10 meteres of the sparrowhawks,WHY if you have a killer in your house its better if he is in the same room as you and with lots of eyes watchin your every move.

if you dont know where your killer is ,he could strike anywhere,plus 90 percent of kills not done around nesting area of sparrowhawks.

a lot of arkive footage shows a food pass calling it courtship,it is not courtship is a totally different ritual,a food pass is what it is a food pass done when female incubating eggs and 1st 2 weeks of juvaniles,she leaves the nest takes kill from male eats a bit and returns straight back to nest to feed chicks.

i could go on all year telling youabout this bird,my web site has a FREE FILM CLIP to show my work im doing

with the sparrowhawk and birds around it hope you enjoy it.

                         Dave. www.sparrowhawk-island.co.uk

                                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkxQFT4wzGg free clip

                                   http://www.vimeo.com/5847151 birds bathing,meteres from sparrowhawk nest.

Possesions are Worthless Our Planet Priceless.
  • Hi Dave

    Great videos there - love the bathing one and I have saved the link to the live webcams in my favourites. Many thanks for sharing.

    Squirrel

    The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.

    The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!

  • Squirrel B said:

    Hi Dave

    Great videos there - love the bathing one and I have saved the link to the live webcams in my favourites. Many thanks for sharing.

    Squirrel

    Thank you squirrel,spent last 10 months on island filming,no contact really with outside world,i went a waterway meeting 2 days ago and have swine flu symtoms now,feel pretty rubbish,having tablets delivered to door step shortly as cannot go out for 5 days.cheers. Dave

    PS.havent had flu 4/9 years since livin on island,i go a meetin and a presto.

    Possesions are Worthless Our Planet Priceless.
  • Hi Dave - It's hard to watch nature sometimes but its seems to know what its doing - we have had a sparrowhawk around our garden throughout the breeding season this year and each day I saw it take an adult blackbird from one of the  gardens often from ours but at the end of the breeding season we still seemed to have an amaziang amount of young birds and plenty of adult ones as well and all the young seemed to have been well fed and reared be it by one or two parents.  At first this is very upsetting to watch but they do not kill for the fun of it - it is purely for survival and you have to accept that and then you can enjoy the excitement of having these birds in your garden on a daily basis.  More often than not the alarm call is given well in advance in the bird leaves empty handed.  Am working at the moment (officially) so will have a better look into your site this evening. 

  • Hi Dave,

    Amazing what you have been doing, i came across your website a few years ago.

    Must say the Sparrowhawk is my favourite bird.

    I saw a food pass from the male to the female in august 2008 in France he did a few passes that week, but until then i didnt actually know they did it., i knew that hen harriers did but not sparrowhawks. Wish i had caught that on tape i filmed them a few times but missed the food passes as i didnt have the camera by my side & it was over in seconds.

    Keep up the good work ;)

     

     

  • Hi Dave

    Great idea that yoiu have going there

    Love your footage, and I hope that it raises any future questions about Sparrowhawks.

    Are you in contact with any film-makers at all who will be interested in what you have to offer?

    Regards

    Kathy and Dave

    marlene t said:

    The elusive sparrowhawk,i have spent the last 5 years living with this beautiful bird in the wild,and filming its

    behaviour lots never been seen,a lot of data is incorrect on this bird,so i am making a film of its life throughout the year.

    wildlife film makers say virtually impossible,so im going to prove them wrong,if sparrowhawks are about your garden dont worry it means the song bird population is thriving.

    all birds where i study this pair,nest within 3 to 10 meteres of the sparrowhawks,WHY if you have a killer in your house its better if he is in the same room as you and with lots of eyes watchin your every move.

    if you dont know where your killer is ,he could strike anywhere,plus 90 percent of kills not done around nesting area of sparrowhawks.

    a lot of arkive footage shows a food pass calling it courtship,it is not courtship is a totally different ritual,a food pass is what it is a food pass done when female incubating eggs and 1st 2 weeks of juvaniles,she leaves the nest takes kill from male eats a bit and returns straight back to nest to feed chicks.

    i could go on all year telling youabout this bird,my web site has a FREE FILM CLIP to show my work im doing

    with the sparrowhawk and birds around it hope you enjoy it.

                             Dave. www.sparrowhawk-island.co.uk

                                       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkxQFT4wzGg free clip

                                       http://www.vimeo.com/5847151 birds bathing,meteres from sparrowhawk nest.