In article ,
says...
On 16/4/08 22:45, in article ,
"Mogga" wrote:

On Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:29:54 +0100, Charlie Pridham
wrote:

Found this beauty in my greenhouse today, it let me pick it up and posed
for this before releasing. Should have been cross as it has eaten all the
male blackbirds over the last two weeks
www.roselandhouse.co.uk/visitor.htm


Do they go for bigger things than blackbirds too? We've got some of
those collared dove things and I saw a speeding blur steal tail
fathers from a CD on the bid table - and a burst of feathers as the CD
escaped. I've not spotted anything that looks capable of eating one
though.

They definitely do! We had white doves here at one time and a sparrowhawk
was treating them as a sort of meals on wheels. In the end we took the
remaining birds back to the original supplier. I couldn't bear to think
that even while enjoying their beauty, we were condemning them to certain
death. We get quite a lot of collared doves here and all too often we find
a puff of feathers somewhere in the garden. They seem to draw the line at
wood pigeons, though.

I was just surprised at how small and light it was, not much bigger than
the blackbirds and certainly not as large as the jackdaws which we have
also seen evidence of it eating. I have seen plenty of these around but
this was the first time one has let me pick it up (I think it was feeling
a bit down being stuck in the green house as it did not struggle at all)
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea