In article ,
Roger Tonkin writes
Coincidently, as I was just coming up stairs to the
computer I stopped at the stair landing window to
watch the birds on the feeders for a moment (or 6!).
Suddenly the birds took froght and a sparrow hawk
swooped down, landing on the now empty lawn, but with
a tit of somesort between its claws. I was tempted to
bang the window in the hope it would let go of the
tit, but didn't, deciding it was probably dead anyway,
and the sparrow hawk needed feeding anyway. He sat on
the lawn in full view for about 90 seconds before
flying off with his dinner.


A few years ago, a sparrowhawk caught a starling in my garden. I
managed to grab a (not very good) video recorder and filmed it for a
while. It wasn't put off by me going outside and getting quite close to
it (although kept moving further away if I got too close). It was a
very 'red in tooth and claw' moment - although the starling wasn't
making it easy.

Eventually, the hawk dragged it off to a puddle and seemed to be holding
its head down in the water until it gave up the struggle - at which
point the hawk flew off with the starling - although it seemed to
struggle to get height.

Quite an experience.

--
regards andyw