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What on earth?

Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
in Wildlife gardening
This nasty git just swooped down at speed into the corner of the garden and seems to have caught a bird of some sort-

https://youtu.be/V4jAhpXVYVM

Swallowed it whole just after I stopped filming. What on earth would have prompted this so suddenly? 

I've never even seen the 2 sparrowhawks in the area catch anything.

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited May 2020
    They’re opportunists ... on the coast they eat fish ... and chips, pasties and ice creams. 
    Inland they take what they can find. 
    Nature red in tooth and claw. 

    Watch out if you take a buttered scone out into the garden with your mug of tea 😱

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Dirty HarryDirty Harry Posts: 1,048
    They're always around the smaller birds though. This one literally swooped in out of nowhere.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Horrible things, and dangerous, you could try banging Saucepan  lids together, just one bang at the time, they may think it’s a shotgun. 
    Be careful if you have children! 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I bet they're struggling for food with lockdown shutting the pubs and takeaways. Not a good time to be a baby bird sadly. :/
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • GreenbirdGreenbird Posts: 237
    edited May 2020
    https://youtu.be/Qwq9bi11Pqk

    I've seen them swallow ducklings whole.


  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,190
    Not just baby birds...

    https://twitter.com/NatureisScary/status/1257491959075217410
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Llandudno herring gulls specialise in snatching your ice cream out of the cone in mid-flight.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    So do the ones in St Ives ... OH can’t go to the stall to buy icecreams for both of us ... I have to go with him and risk losing our seats on the bench ... you need one hand to carry the ice cream and one to fend off the seagulls. 

    And don’t do as one young man did ... putting his pasty on his lap while talking to his girlfriend on the phone ... his face was priceless, bless him. 😂 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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