I've got a couple of collared doves and they wait for me to feed them morning and evening, they've become quite tame. Unfortunately I also have sparrow hawks and often find piles of feathers left from their victims. So far the doves have dodged the hawk.
I know it's nature and the hawks have to eat, but I wish they would eat in the acres of fields around me rather than my garden.
I also have an intermittent pigeon problem and they can be quite tenacious. My best defense from them is a Nerf gun that fires harmless foam bullets and whistle in mid-air. Can be fun to practice my Clint Eastward impressions.
No they take live prey @Bijdezee. One was overhead here recently causing a commotion, because he/she had nicked a bird from nearby and scarpered. Couldn't see what it was - magpie or crow of some kind. The parents were going bonkers.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Sparrowhawks are often attracted to gardens because barriers (fences/hedges etc) perfectly suit their style of hunting because they are ambush predators. Contrast their style of hunting with for example the Peregrine, which either flies down it's target over distance or dives upon it from above.
It's very easy to attach human sentiment to nature but for the sparrowhawk it's nothing personal. It is killing to survive, it hasn't made a conscious decision to prey on other birds but is a product of its environment i.e natural selection. You will notice this in action with it's shorter, rounded wings and long tail, ideally suited for flying through woodland. This body shape is shared by its larger cousin the Goshawk. Both are deadly hunters but beautiful too.
There's a misguided woman who does that here too @Big Blue Sky. Seagulls, pigeons [including a handful of the street variety] and the usual corvids all congregate round her house. Glad I don't live next to her.
I just hope all that white bread doesn’t attract rats 🙁 that would really be disgusting. One or two birds of prey would be such a good solution for the increasing pigeon population. I can see kite high in the sky sometimes but he is not interested. Need to get me some of those foamy “bullets” perhaps 😄
Yes we have sat and watched a sparrow hawk eating its dinner. They are beautiful birds and they need their dinners as well. Those birds certainly cleared up their plates when they had finished. All that was left were piles of feathers.
I read somewhere (RSPB?) that the presence of a sparrow hawk indicates a healthy and plentiful supply of small birds on which they prey. So our feeding and encouraging the birds to the table also encourages the predator. We have had a sparrow hawk swooping in our garden on many occasions. The little birds take off in fright, and the hawk usually goes away empty handed. But we did have one hawk that chased a young goldfinch into the house the other year! It, the goldfinch, fled upstairs; the hawk flapped and was distressed in the kitchen. It wasn't easy to "encourage" a sharp-beaked predator, with wicked talons, out of the kitchen! and then to go upstairs to shoo the goldfinch out of the house!
Philippa, I wonder if Gordon Ramsay gets sparrowhawks in his garden?
Shrinking Violet, you're right. It's not in the interest of sparrowhawks for prey species to be wiped out otherwise they would then vanish too. And the majority of their attempts do fail anyway.
I remember not too long ago seeing a documentary about a national park in the US. It might have been Yellowstone but there was a crisis of young trees not making it to maturity due to a surplus of Caribou. They were all getting eaten at the sapling stage and they put it down to hunters having wiped out the wolf population. So they launched a wolf reintroduction program, these wolves started cutting the caribou population and more young trees started growing again.
@Fishy65 : that's something that is rather lost in the rush to be environmentally friendly - our actions upset the balance of nature. So an understanding of the needs to balance the ecology of an area will ultimately give us the bio diversity that we seem to be recognising (belatedly, imo) to be essential in the long term. Myxomatosis all but wiped out the rabbit population. The demise of the wild rabbits depleted the buzzards and other birds of prey etc. The subsequent steady increase of rabbits has seen the rise of the buzzard population. Whether or not it is yet in balance is a matter for debate. But it surely shows that we should be more aware of trying to minimise harm to any one species?
Which is where we gardeners have taken up the cudgels of fewer pesticides, re-wilding our gardens if we can, and protecting the environment. The battle is not yet won - but we are, at least, becoming more aware.
That's the case here in the Highlands @Fishy65. The wolves were obliterated, so the deer multiplied as they have very few predators. If they aren't culled, they die of starvation, disease etc. The approach in Glen Feshie has been slightly different, and is also very sucessful. There's a project in one place where, believe it or not, volunteers go into wooded areas where they're trying to establish trees, and do a bit of howling.... Apparently - it works! We don't really get sparrowhawks here - not the right location, although we did at the last house, but buzzards a plenty. I always love seeing them. You're right @Shrinking Violet that it's an entire circle, and without prey to feed on, we lose species. It can take a while for a balance to be achieved, but that's how nature often works, and as gardeners, we can hopefully do a little to keep the wheels turning the right way.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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I know it's nature and the hawks have to eat, but I wish they would eat in the acres of fields around me rather than my garden.
I also have an intermittent pigeon problem and they can be quite tenacious. My best defense from them is a Nerf gun that fires harmless foam bullets and whistle in mid-air. Can be fun to practice my Clint Eastward impressions.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
It's very easy to attach human sentiment to nature but for the sparrowhawk it's nothing personal. It is killing to survive, it hasn't made a conscious decision to prey on other birds but is a product of its environment i.e natural selection. You will notice this in action with it's shorter, rounded wings and long tail, ideally suited for flying through woodland. This body shape is shared by its larger cousin the Goshawk. Both are deadly hunters but beautiful too.
One or two birds of prey would be such a good solution for the increasing pigeon population. I can see kite high in the sky sometimes but he is not interested. Need to get me some of those foamy “bullets” perhaps 😄
Those birds certainly cleared up their plates when they had finished.
All that was left were piles of feathers.
What about the little robins that need to eat
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
We have had a sparrow hawk swooping in our garden on many occasions. The little birds take off in fright, and the hawk usually goes away empty handed.
But we did have one hawk that chased a young goldfinch into the house the other year! It, the goldfinch, fled upstairs; the hawk flapped and was distressed in the kitchen. It wasn't easy to "encourage" a sharp-beaked predator, with wicked talons, out of the kitchen! and then to go upstairs to shoo the goldfinch out of the house!
Shrinking Violet, you're right. It's not in the interest of sparrowhawks for prey species to be wiped out otherwise they would then vanish too. And the majority of their attempts do fail anyway.
I remember not too long ago seeing a documentary about a national park in the US. It might have been Yellowstone but there was a crisis of young trees not making it to maturity due to a surplus of Caribou. They were all getting eaten at the sapling stage and they put it down to hunters having wiped out the wolf population. So they launched a wolf reintroduction program, these wolves started cutting the caribou population and more young trees started growing again.
Myxomatosis all but wiped out the rabbit population. The demise of the wild rabbits depleted the buzzards and other birds of prey etc. The subsequent steady increase of rabbits has seen the rise of the buzzard population. Whether or not it is yet in balance is a matter for debate. But it surely shows that we should be more aware of trying to minimise harm to any one species?
Which is where we gardeners have taken up the cudgels of fewer pesticides, re-wilding our gardens if we can, and protecting the environment. The battle is not yet won - but we are, at least, becoming more aware.
There's a project in one place where, believe it or not, volunteers go into wooded areas where they're trying to establish trees, and do a bit of howling....
Apparently - it works!
We don't really get sparrowhawks here - not the right location, although we did at the last house, but buzzards a plenty. I always love seeing them.
You're right @Shrinking Violet that it's an entire circle, and without prey to feed on, we lose species. It can take a while for a balance to be achieved, but that's how nature often works, and as gardeners, we can hopefully do a little to keep the wheels turning the right way.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...