In article , Nospam@invalid
says...

On Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:00:06 -0000, Janet wrote:


Sounds to me as if our bvirds have migrated East, Our numbers are
drasticaly down, We are using around 80% less feed than normal, we
just have Blue tits, a couple of great tits, a couple of robins
several blackbirds and a couple of greater spoted wood peckers, not a
sparrow in sight, last year we were providing bead and breakfast for
around 200 of the things.
I think that having a sparrow hawk moving in has driven most away..

We have sparrow hawks and other birds of prey in abundance here, the
hawks often hunt and kill birds in the garden but we still have hundreds
of small birds scoffing our feed supplies, just like Jake.

Janet (Scotland)

We get sparrow hawks here and also the occasional buzzard. However the
feeders are placed near shelter (overhanging thorny trees and shrubs)
and the table is near a tree and has a roof on it so opportunities to
swoop are limited.

Sparrow hawks are fascinating birds and highly intelligent. I sited a
birdtable/feeders beside cover and in such a location that the hawk should
have difficulty flying to it. That only lasted until he updated his
navigation aids and started practising an approach that requires three
high speed 90 degree turns in rapid succession. One one dummy run he had
an engine malfunction, baled out and crashlanded almost at my feet. The
next time I saw him make that run he snatched a collar dove from the
birdtable roof, crashlanded in the same place and ate it right under the
kitchen window. He's now refined the technique and instead of trying to
grab the birds from the birdtable, his tactic is to scare them off it,
into the hedge (hawthorn, tight cut and dense). Then hawk bounces and
pounces along the top of the hedge trying to spook them out of it. If they
panic out of the hedge, they don't stand a chance at such close range. My
son had a fascinating sequence of this on his phone.

I've had more sunflower hearts delivered today so I'm alright until
the end of January at current consumption but after that I'll have to
cut down somehow. There's no way I can afford to carry on spending at
this rate.

We have some bottomless-pockets neighbours nearby, who spend over £300 a
month on bulk food for wild garden birds and still can't keep up with the
demand.

Janet