Rovi Snave wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 8:48 am
Great pictures Cap’n
Very surprised she managed to take down a pigeon
It's common enough for a female sparrowhawk to manage a pigeon, although it is about the limit of what they manage. What surprised me was that she seemed intent on eating it on the spot - probably hoping it was safe enough from other predators and human interaction. Based against a fence meant that she only had to watch 180 degrees, so suppose that was a reasonable conclusion (if indeed that's what it was).
Unfortunately she was disturbed by kids playing on or walking past the spot - a point confirmed to me a couple of hours later by overhearing kids saying "oh, the bird has gone" followed by a discussion of where it may have gone. The kids concluded it had been removed by a cat, but I know from watching that it was removed by the sparrowhawk by stages into cover of some nearby gorse bushes.
It was clearly a kill worth keeping an eye on as I watched the hawk up in the trees above returning to the carcass a number of times over a few hours, presumably to get as much food from it as possible while it could. It may well have removed what was left of it later anyway when it was much lighter, but certainly when it was freshly dead, it seemed to struggle to carry the pigeon in the air.
I've also seen the remains of a magpie taken by sparrowhawk in my garden, but missed the actual event. Interestingly (maybe?), the whole time the hawk was up in the trees, the local magpies were very agitated and sounding alarm calls. On at least two occasions, they even attacked and harried the sparrowhawk, but all she did was move a way a few yards as if they were a mere annoyance and not a danger to her.
No way a male sparrowhawk could have taken a pigeon or magpie though. Too puny.