Suprising Sparrowhawk behaviour (1 Viewer)

Gerry Hooper · Mar 15, 2005

I got a shock this morning when I walked out the back door to see a Sparrowhawk floating in the pond.See Attached pic.
It was struggling with something in his talons, the struggling stopped and it emerged from the pond carrying a large rat.
It was too heavy for it to lift over the hedge so it spent 20 mins. devouring it on the lawn.
Is it unusual for Sparrowhawks to take anything other than birds, there's no mention of it in any books I've got.
The rats do sit on the bird table and even climb the tree to get to the feeders,maybe the Sparrowhawk made a mistake.
Also, would it of intentionally taken the rat to the pond to drown it or was that just a happy accident?

Ranger James · Mar 15, 2005

Wow! the more stories I hear about spawks, the less I am surprised. What fascinating birds they are.
James

Andrew Rowlands · Mar 15, 2005

It does seem to be rare for Sparrowhawks to take mammals; drowning captured prey is fairly common though - lucky you Gerry!

Andy.

jurek · Mar 15, 2005

Possibly the story was like this: rat was attacked on the ground and run into the water with Sparrowhawk in pusruit. The Sparrowhawk caught the rat in the water and didn't let go.

Dawsy · Mar 15, 2005

I don't know how unusual it is but I wish I'd seen it.

Ranger James · Mar 15, 2005

Or, sparrowhawk swoops on table, get surprised with catching rat, plummets to ground and is dragged into water by shoked rat. Rat then drowns.
Its a theory?
James

Hotspur · Mar 15, 2005

Question, i was told by another member that male sprawks are too small to catch woodpigeons yet yesterday i saw a very small male on a large and still live (soon to be ex-)pigeon, most definitely in control. Has anyone else seen male sprawks taking very large prey.

luke · Mar 15, 2005

Hotspur said:
Question, i was told by another member that male sprawks are too small to catch woodpigeons yet yesterday i saw a very small male on a large and still live (soon to be ex-)pigeon, most definitely in control. Has anyone else seen male sprawks taking very large prey.

I was out with a few lads on the weekend at my local reserve (silent Valley , SE wales) and we came across a birds plucking site. there were three 'piles' of feathers all definatly woodies, later on that day there was a male sprawk hunting in the forest not far away from the kill sites. i was told though that a sprawk would definatly not take anything that big, i was told i was probably a peregrine. interesting though and probably correct

saluki · Mar 15, 2005

Hi Luke,

If the kills were in the forest it's doubtful they would be Peregrine. A Musket (male) would struggle with a Woodie, most females wouldn't.

saluki

salty · Mar 15, 2005

interesting pic!

it seems sparrowhawks are going to extremes to find/catch prey recently. maybe the reason they are doing so very well, eating whatever they can get there talons on!. i have heard of raptors drowning there prey, but never came across a sparrowhawk eating a rat.

makes you think they could catch squirrel?

pauco · Mar 15, 2005

Hotspur said:
Question, i was told by another member that male sprawks are too small to catch woodpigeons yet yesterday i saw a very small male on a large and still live (soon to be ex-)pigeon, most definitely in control. Has anyone else seen male sprawks taking very large prey.

The local male sprawk is always trying to take on the much bigger woodies, the last 2 flew off, minus a few feathers, he should leave it to the female to do the shopping!

Gerry Hooper · Mar 15, 2005

Cheers Folks,
I must say I was suprised when it came out of the pond with a four legged furry thing with a tail.
Probably won't see that again on a Tuesday!

Jos Stratford · Mar 15, 2005

Hi there Gerry,

Fantastic tale, I do remember reading something similar of a Sparrowhawk drowning a prey item - though don't remember whether it was a mammal (I think not).

Here, Sparrowhawks are most amuzing in their hunting method - when they come into the garden, the feeding flocks dive into my hedge. This can mean as many as 200 birds in the hedge (totally leafless at this time of year). Probably in an attempt to flush one out, the Sparrowhawks fly above the hedge, then drop in like a stone, then again fly vertically up a metre or so, fluip over and again drop like a stone back into the hedge. Often they do this eight or ten times, each drop being slightly further along the hedge.
An alternative approach with one of the Sparrowhawks is to run (!) after the birds in the hedge - this is most interesting to watch! Walks along the ground, then darts into the middle of the hedge, then runs along the length, jumping over low branches, whilst all the congregated passerines continuously edge further along, staying a safe distance in front.
Never seen successful kill from the 'run approach' and only once from the 'drop'. Infact the Sparrowhawks usually fly up to the neighbouring pines and hit back a few minutes later. Interestingly, birds are back on the feeders literally within seconds of the Sparrowhawk departing.

me1000 · Mar 16, 2005

Hello all,
Sparrowhawks are noted for their "STICKY FEET" as falconers say, basically once they grip their prey they cannot let go until the adrenelin levels subside.
me

gw4aurora · Mar 16, 2005

I have seen a female sparrowhawk take a redshank on the local river and it pinned the bird down easily.
Also one came through the fence from nextdoor walking along the ground hiding behind the plants and bushes trying to reach the blackbirds. Crafty critter. I interfered with nature here and moved it on.

Chris.

paulc · Mar 16, 2005

I seen a sparrowhawk take a rat at a site called the wirral country park, they have a hide set up for the public, and it attracts rats a plenty, anyway this Sparrowhawk took a small rat and started to devour it not 30 feet from the hide.

RecoveringScot · Mar 16, 2005

Hotspur said:
Question, i was told by another member that male sprawks are too small to catch woodpigeons yet yesterday i saw a very small male on a large and still live (soon to be ex-)pigeon, most definitely in control. Has anyone else seen male sprawks taking very large prey.

There was a previous thread about this in December-January (I think). That related to a report of a male Sparrowhawk carrying a dead Wood Pigeon. I notice from your report that the Wood Pigeon was in the middle of a road, and wonder whether the male Sparrowhawk was not just finishing off a Woodie that had been struck, but not killed, by a car. Wood Pigeon weigh about 3 and a half to 4 times as much as a male Sparrowhawk on average, and to strike one down in flight would be a major undertaking for a male Sparrowhawk, and even a bit of a task for a female. In the opinion of one expert relying to a question I have asked elsewhere, a male Sparrowhawk launching a successful strike on a Woodie (strong birds and powerful fliers) would be something of a rarity. Forsman in his 'Raptors' book implies that even female Sparrowhawks catching Wood Pigeon is the exception rather than the rule. However others say that in certain areas Woodies form a large part of the female Sparrowhawk diet. So it's a point that needs to be cleared up.

Nutcracker · Mar 16, 2005

RecoveringScot said:
Forsman in his 'Raptors' book implies that even female Sparrowhawks catching Wood Pigeon is the exception rather than the rule. However others say that in certain areas Woodies form a large part of the female Sparrowhawk diet. So it's a point that needs to be cleared up.

Both are true - Woodies are so big, that even though they're a fairly scarce catch, when they do get one, it is as much food as several other birds (e.g. about 5 Blackbirds, 15 House Sparrows or 50 Blue Tits). So a Woodie a month still makes a substantial percentage of the total food consumption.

RecoveringScot · Mar 16, 2005

Nutcracker said:
Both are true - Woodies are so big, that even though they're a fairly scarce catch, when they do get one, it is as much food as several other birds (e.g. about 5 Blackbirds, 15 House Sparrows or 50 Blue Tits). So a Woodie a month still makes a substantial percentage of the total food consumption.

I understood from the previous posting I had in mind, which may have gone down in the 'great crash', that the poster implied that Wood Pigeon were (in a heavily forested area of Northumberland) significant prey items in terms of catch frequency, not just proportion of total prey weight, though I may be wrong.

saluki · Mar 17, 2005

RecoveringScot said:
I understood from the previous posting I had in mind, which may have gone down in the 'great crash', that the poster implied that Wood Pigeon were (in a heavily forested area of Northumberland) significant prey items in terms of catch frequency, not just proportion of total prey weight, though I may be wrong.

Falconers have know for centuries that hawks often become 'wedded' to certain prey. I knew a Peregrine tiercel that would fly through a flock of Rooks, Woodies or Jackdaws to nail a Hoodie! Despite the fact that he often took a battering, he would always seek out Hoodies. We also had a wild Spar that decimated our pigeons, killing 2 or 3 a week. She'd started killing them as an eyass and continued on throughout the winter. Over the years other Spars have taken the odd pigeon, but none have been so dedicated as this particular individual.

I think, therefore, that some Spars will kill more Woodies than others. For example, if an eyass female Gos attempts to take a Brown Hare and receives a good kicking for it's troubles, it will usually refuse to ever look at one again. But if it manages - more through luck than judgement - to take it in the correct manner and subdue the hare easily, it will then continue to take hares throughout it's career. Likewise, a young Spar may go through a similar experience with a Woodie.

I wonder how the figures on Spars killing Wood Pigeon were arrived at? If it was from kills brought into the nest then surely it is flawed? Apart from the fact that the Musket would do most of the hunting initially, the female would surely kill smaller prey to enable her to carry it to a nest 40ft up a Larch tree! In my experience Spars rarely carry pigeons any distance.

Finally, I too have seen a Spar kill a rat. It was only a very small one though, young rats often climb up plants and feed on the seed heads - rather like mice. This particular unfortunate individual was doing just that when a female Spar plucked it off the seed head!

saluki

Suprising Sparrowhawk behaviour (1 Viewer)

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