On 17/4/08 09:42, in article ,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote:

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)

Maybe it was hungry! We have had one in the big double greenhouse a couple
of times. A lot of other birds go in there to feed from all sorts of bits
and pieces, as well as the feeders we put up. At the back of that house we
have a deepish ledge with rows of stock plant Pelargoniums on it. Sparrows
love foraging in there and last time a sparrowhawk was in there it had
followed them in like a bullet, only to look most confused as they
disappeared into the Pelargoniums and then out through a gap in the glass at
the back! But the biggest thrill was going into the small double with Ray
one morning to see a Tawny Owl sitting on a cross beam glaring at us because
it had come in during the night and couldn't find its way out again!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'