Keith (Dorset) wrote:

Hi Mike,

I sympathise, we have had a female sparrowhawk here hunting very actively
(along with the resident Peregrines and Kestrels) since early last autumn.

Having said that, when we were kids they had become so relatively scarce,
due to pesticides, that I try to remind myself that we are all the richer
now.

Whenever I see a sparrowhawk kill I remind myself of the main reason for 'so
few' garden birds nowadays - seven million domestic cats in Britain.

Subsequently I have a zero cat tolerance on our land.

One kill per week per cat... is an awful lot more feathers!

Best wishes,

Keith


"MikeCT" wrote in message
...
For the second morning running, I looked out of my conservatory window
only
to see a pile of feathers around the bird table. Our resident sparrowhawk
has once again collared one of my doves for breakfast. Easy pickings, two
down, three to go. My only worry is that once she has taken all my doves,
she'll start on the two bluetits now building a nest in a box at the
bottom
of the garden. I only see the female hawk who is quite fearless and
patrols
the estate gardens on a daily basis picking off the house sparrows, her
favourite diet.

MikeCT




If one pauses to consider ....

'Songbirds' and the 'usual suspects' - Magpies, Sparrowhawks, Peregrines
have actually co-existed quite happily in Britain and elsewhere for
thousands of years. If there is now a problem, it makes absolutely no
sense to blame Magpies, Sparrowhawks or Peregrines. If there is a
problem, logically it must arise from something which is different now
from the last 10,000 years. And even a Sun reader should be able to work
that out, possibly with the help of a few diagrams .... :-)
--
Larry Stoter