On 30/11/05 16:23, in article ,
"Klara" wrote:
snip

I suppose the sparrowhawk needs to feed too, but do grudge it raising a
large and hungry family! I have been more or less glued to the computer
for more than a year with too many deadlines, but even in my occasional
glances out the window I have seen a lot of birds taken, and it only
takes a few seconds ... usually the prey is carted off to be consumed
elsewhere - my guess is that we must lose a bird a day (often, I think,
ring-necked doves). The pheasant did have a second hen months ago, but
that one, judging by the sad little pile of feathers, may have been
taken by the vixen with her brood. But I keep on feeding the birds, in
the hope that that does more good than harm - because the sparrowhawk
will prey somewhere anyway.

I'm always a bit ambivalent about these things. I do realise that the
sparrowhawk - and the slug and the snail and the deathwatch beetle - all
need to feed and breed but am also aware that part of the reason for their
apparent rapaciousness increasing is that man has 're-arranged' their
habitat. So do we manage the situation or do we stand back and let nature
take its course, hastening the evolutionary process whereby ring-neck doves
develop natural camouflage, get a good price on Uzis and/or learn to be less
bird-brained. ;-) Here, a little pile of feathers usually means a
sparrowhawk as it makes its hit.
BTW, I've always been told that sparrowhawks dive in, make their hit and
disappear. But here, in our garden, I have seen a sparrowhawk sit in a
hedge and on the branch of a tree, watching our white doves which were
inside some netting over their dovecote, being 'homed'. It flew down and
pounced on one through the netting and was chased off. But it came back day
after day and sat there. I wonder if that's normal - if they have always
known when some kind human has provided them with a running buffet, or if
this is in itself, a form of adaptation to finding and harvesting what is
easily available.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)