Close encounters.

[Lurker]

Yesterday evening we were sitting in the garden with son and DiL chatting.
There were lots of bluetits on the feeders less than 3 metres from our chairs. On flew onto the ground less than 2 metres from me to pick up some loose feed , from nowhere a sparrow hawk pounced.
So close and over in seconds.

 

[Robert]

We had a sparrowhawk chase a pigeon into our patio doors. I saw and heard it crash into the glass and drop to the patio. The hawk managed to stop and grabbed the dead or stunned pigeon and fly off with it to the top of the garden to eat it. Think it was too heavy to go further than our garden as it never got more than 2 ft off the ground.

 

[Cabinetman]

I would expect more depredation I’m afraid, the Hawk probably thinks you’ve set up an all day buffet for it.

 

[Lurker]

There’s a thorn and holly hedge very close to the feeders so the prey have a decent chance.
Pity the hawks don’t eat squirrels!

 

[AJB Temple]

Buzzards take squirrels sometimes, but squirrels are fast and wary. The pair nesting very near us (tall tree at the end of our garden in fact - the nest is very high up) seem mainly to take the plentiful supply of rabbits and pigeons. I wish they would take more squirrels as we clearly have a dray somewhere in the garden or orchard, that I have failed to spot yet.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I find the only way to deal with squirrels is to shoot them.

I watched a buzzard getting driven off by several crows a few weeks ago. The buzzard kept trying to circle for over twenty minutes but the crows kept swooping in until it realised they weren't going to give up.

 

[Pete Maddex]

I had a sparrow hawk land on the wall between our garden and next door, it looked at me then was gone.


Pete

 

[Lurker]

I find the only way to deal with squirrels is to shoot them.

I do, but only when her majesty is out ( she thinks they are cute ).
The strange thing is, they seem to know when she is out and make themselves scarce. When she is at home, the little sods are running around the garden tormenting me!

 

[AJB Temple]

You can of course trap them. Squirrels are a real pain for us as we have a lot of feeders for birds, and so have stored feed for them in plastic waterproof barrels (also koi food). The squirrels are constantly on the bird feeders and even chew at the barrel tops. We try to lure them into traps with fat balls. Some fall for it and then they are swiftly despatched.

 

[Blackswanwood]

You can of course trap them. Squirrels are a real pain for us as we have a lot of feeders for birds, and so have stored feed for them in plastic waterproof barrels (also koi food). The squirrels are constantly on the bird feeders and even chew at the barrel tops. We try to lure them into traps with fat balls. Some fall for it and then they are swiftly despatched.

I find that after the first one falls for it they quickly learn that the trap is bad news. It’s likely you don’t have the same problem as Kent squirrels won’t be as intelligent as Yorkshire ones

 

[Dr.Al]

We had a male sparrowhawk in the garden this afternoon and he didn't seem to mind us watching him from the dining room. He seemed a little confused as to why there weren't any sparrows on the bird feeders:


Then he flew into the hedge and came out with something brown (sparrow or dunnock: hard to tell the difference when they're in the claws of a hawk).



Incidentally, both of those photos were taken with just a phone camera through the dining room window. The second one was on ×20 zoom and it came out a lot better than I expected, all things considered. The video wasn't bad either given the way I was filming it:

 

[RogerS]

Those are cracking photos and video. Which model phone is it, please, as my Samsung is useless at taking a decent photo or video.

 

[Mike G]

Great photos, Al.

I walked out to the workshop after lunch yesterday, and saw a sparrowhawk on the 3 phase cables just outside our garden. As I walked under the pergola, I found all of our chickens huddled together in there, on high alert. They normally get out of our way promptly, but they wouldn't move, obviously scared rigid. No way could a sparrow hawk tackle a chicken, but the chickens don't know that. I shoo'd it away, and chicken resumed normal duties.

I've seen a hen harrier in the area a couple of times over the years. One of those would change the chickens' attitude!

 

[Dr.Al]

Those are cracking photos and video. Which model phone is it, please, as my Samsung is useless at taking a decent photo or video.

Google Pixel 9 Pro (bought shortly after the Pixel 10 came out and hence the 9 went down in price, although it still wasn't what you'd call cheap). I had a fairly cheap and basic Oneplus Nord thing before but it was 5 years old and kept crashing. The camera was a bit rubbish by modern standards. I decided to get something a bit better this time; hopefully it will last a lot of years!

 

[fuse]

In our area Red Kite are beginning to outnumber the pigeons.
I wonder how a reintroduced species could affect the balance of a system that had readjusted after they disappeared