finchy
Well-known member
For the last couple of years i've had sunflower feeders and ut feeders hanging on a tree outside my office window attracting mainly finches and tits.
Occasionally and this has been very rare i've found small piles of plucked feathers indicating a possible sparrowhawk attack.
Anyway things have taken a turn for the worse,6 weeks ago we noticed a sparrowhawk sitting in the tree,male judging by the size of it.
Last week,carnage, a sparrowhawk flew straight into the feeding area scattering all and sundry,a greenfinch flew into our window trying to escape and was followed by the sparrowhawk who took it away.The sparrowhawk re-appeared an hour later and hasn't been seen since until..................
Yesterday afternoon i was walking to the fire escape door to re-fill the sunflower feeder when out of the corner of my eye i saw something hit the ground like a dart..yep,sparrowhawk was back and attached to him was another greenfinch.It all happened so quickly and he was gone withing 30 seconds.I would never have known he was there if it weren't for the fact that i was walking to the door.
My questions if anybody has any advice are
1):- Am i doing the right thing by continuing to feed or should i scale down the feeding for a while ??
2):- In view of the fact that it was only by chance i saw the attack,is it possible that this has been going unnoticed for the past couple of weeks ??
3):- How many small birds does a sparrowhawk require a day and are they territorial ??
Incidentally my mum and dad have video footage of a sparrowhawk attacking and killing a wood pigeon a couple of weeks ago.This bird was considerably bigger than the one outside my office and i'm amazed by the difference in size between the males and females.
Occasionally and this has been very rare i've found small piles of plucked feathers indicating a possible sparrowhawk attack.
Anyway things have taken a turn for the worse,6 weeks ago we noticed a sparrowhawk sitting in the tree,male judging by the size of it.
Last week,carnage, a sparrowhawk flew straight into the feeding area scattering all and sundry,a greenfinch flew into our window trying to escape and was followed by the sparrowhawk who took it away.The sparrowhawk re-appeared an hour later and hasn't been seen since until..................
Yesterday afternoon i was walking to the fire escape door to re-fill the sunflower feeder when out of the corner of my eye i saw something hit the ground like a dart..yep,sparrowhawk was back and attached to him was another greenfinch.It all happened so quickly and he was gone withing 30 seconds.I would never have known he was there if it weren't for the fact that i was walking to the door.
My questions if anybody has any advice are
1):- Am i doing the right thing by continuing to feed or should i scale down the feeding for a while ??
2):- In view of the fact that it was only by chance i saw the attack,is it possible that this has been going unnoticed for the past couple of weeks ??
3):- How many small birds does a sparrowhawk require a day and are they territorial ??
Incidentally my mum and dad have video footage of a sparrowhawk attacking and killing a wood pigeon a couple of weeks ago.This bird was considerably bigger than the one outside my office and i'm amazed by the difference in size between the males and females.