Malcolm12/4/04 7:36
In article , Sacha
writes
David W.E. Roberts9/4/04 2:22
Hi,
about a week or so back, one morning whilst glancing out of the window from
across the room, I saw what looked like an explosion in a pigeon factory -
feathers everywhere and rising in the wind to blow over towards our garden.
By the time I got to the window for a good look, there were just a few
drifting feathers.
I assumed 'something' had got a pigeon, but probably not on the ground
because of the height of the cloud of feathers.
Today, looking out on our lawn, there is a cluster of pigeon feathers but no
pigeon.
They weren't there about an hour ago.
That's a dead give away for a sparrow hawk - that 'explosion' as you
describe and finding nothing but feathers.
I don't know where they take their prey to consume it but I do know that a
pigeon fancier told us that they eat the bird through its body and while
it's still alive.
Which is a typical pigeon fancier's emotive statement trying to gain
your sympathy for their birds and against sparrowhawks, though I'm not
quite sure what is meant by "eat the bird through its body". Nature
genuinely *is* red in tooth and claw and some predators do start eating
their prey before it is completely dead.
So he was correct? Thank you.
Studies have shown that the
numbers of pigeons taken by sparrowhawks and other predators is a very
small percentage of overall losses. Ask your pigeon fancier how many
birds he kills himself each year as part of the normal process that
pigeon fanciers go through of weeding out the less successful birds and
keeping the best.
We were discussing sparrowhawks.
--
Sacha
(remove the weeds to email me)