Sparrowhawk

[flossyplops]

This Sparrowhawk has been visiting mother in laws garden (brave thing ) for a while now so I've been keeping an eye on its comings and goings with a couple of trailcams. It favours first thing in the morning and mid afternoon so yesterday I set my hide up and waited, it visited twice during the 3 hours I was sat there. mil has a homemade bird feeder in the shape of a T and the sparrowhawk sits on top and regularly feeds on the small birds in the garden on there as you can see on the second photo where it pulls them apart.

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4

5

I have this pic minus the poo also

 

[ChrisA]

Well the is a multipurpose bird feeder!

Nice shots of the hawk, and good poop shot!

 

[flossyplops]

Thanks Chris

 

[Cobra]

Excellent feeding station for all

minus the poo also

And now for the useless information bit, its called a mute.

You can tell its a youngster by the heart shaped patterns on its chest, these give way to bars after its first moult.
Folklore has it there are 149 (iirc) hearts on its chest, each one in remembrance of the amount of birds that died so it could reach the fledging stage of its life.
No need to thank me, just send cash

 

[flossyplops]

You'll have to accept a thanks Cobra as I'm all outta cash, thanks

 

[The Weasel]

Great shots, Heidi....I was watching the Goldfinches tonight in the garden ( I have a flock of about 40 birds that visits throughout the day ) and they all took off just before a female Sparrowhawk flew through and tried to grab one, I think it just missed by a whisker.

 

[MK1 Photography]

Love the shots sadly I only now have the X100T so I may have to put the camera on a stand and remote shoot!

 

[bossy]

Great shots, a beautiful bird. The only time i've ever seen one is when it crashed into our patio window with one of our blackbirds in it's claws!

 

[mbphoto]

Great shots

 

[xmh]

Not seen one at our bird feeders yet, but I have seen them in the area. Nice shots.

 

[JohnC6]

Good clean set. Number 4 made me laugh..as if it was saying..'Right, what have we got here"...

 

[flossyplops]

Thanks for the comments, it does seem to like that "plucking" post, it also plucked a bird while sitting on the edge of the birdbath so that had to be emptied and cleaned. I've not managed to get it doing it on trailcam yet.

 

[Hoof]

I have a small (think its a male) hits my feeders but i have them in a red beech no chance to catch my 50 plus gold finch mob, but it does nail the larger doves and blackbirds now and again.Had to be a mother-in-law to stick the feeder in the open