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Saw this as I was leaving work last night (they were in fact blocking the exit to my work so I had to stop the car). Heard this commotion and saw this sparrow-hawk (correct ?), pinning down a magpie and ripping it's breast feathers out. For a moment I thought the magpie was already dead, but then it moved and started squawking and struggling. To be honest, I know it's nature, but I did feel a little queezy and sorry for the magpie, as it's the first time I've seen a raptors kill (or attempt) live. Only had time to grab a quick snap with the lens I had attached on my OMD EM5 II at the time, and as is usually the case in these situation, it was all the wrong settings, so there is quite some motion blur, but as a record shot I think it's quite cool.
The Sparrow hawk then looked up and saw me and released it's death grip on the Magpie and flew into a nearby tree. The magpie (after a few seconds), jumped to it's feet and headed into a thick bush nearby just as the hawk swooped back down to grab it. After about 30 seconds or so of frantically trying to get the magpie, he gave up and flew away. TBH, I don't know if the magpie survived, but he wasn't in the bush this morning ?
The Sparrow hawk then looked up and saw me and released it's death grip on the Magpie and flew into a nearby tree. The magpie (after a few seconds), jumped to it's feet and headed into a thick bush nearby just as the hawk swooped back down to grab it. After about 30 seconds or so of frantically trying to get the magpie, he gave up and flew away. TBH, I don't know if the magpie survived, but he wasn't in the bush this morning ?
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