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American Robin is No more ? (1 Viewer)

Steve

Steve

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American robin Had its Day ?

Lincs Report Of The 1w American Robin In Grimsby Being Taken By A
Sparrowhawk 12.10pm.
 
Ironic or what

This post has been lifted from our local Yahoo group but I thought it may interest some of you anyway.


12:53 08/03/04 American Robin Lincs Grimsby 12:10
the 1st-winter female was taken by a female Sparrowhawk at 12:10 this
afternoon.


I can hear the "Pro-Sparrowhawk Cull" protesters as I type!!!
 
Andrew Diment said:
12:53 08/03/04 American Robin Lincs Grimsby 12:10
the 1st-winter female was taken by a female Sparrowhawk at 12:10 this
afternoon.
Click to expand...

Sparrowhawks have a superb knack of finding rarities, and killing them. How many times has this sort of thing been witnessed before? Anyone want to make a list of rare birds taken by Sprawks?

Steve
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There was an occasion of Cursorius cursor in Finland, killed by some local hawk below birders' very eyes. Outraged birders took the prey themselves & now that specimen is in a zoomuseum.

In some other thread someone questioned if there is still this habit of killing the first observation of a species to collections in the Nordic countries. No - we use falcon hunting...
 
Jasonbirder said:
Great timing or what ;)
Click to expand...


Just posted elsewhere ... I found a Pallas Warbler.. actually saw it come in off the sea, followed it down a hedge, where it was snaffled by a Merlin.

I'm almost certain we lost one of 2001's White-rumped Sandpipers to a Peregrine too.....
 
Karwin said:
In some other thread someone questioned if there is still this habit of killing the first observation of a species to collections in the Nordic countries. No - we use falcon hunting...
Click to expand...


Surely not Karwin! ....but there again no rarities records were accepted here before 1977 without hard evidence, i.e. a dead body.

A birder here saw a Woodcock (yes, a vagrant here) get taken by Gyr Falcon in December.

E
 
I think with most raptors being very opportunistic that anything conspicuously out of place is targeted hence albinos rarely making it to maturity.
The AR may not have understood the local birds alarm calls.
This also reminds me of a piece of advice a fellow birder gave me when observing a flock of pigeons flying into peregrine airspace - "keep your eyes on the white bird"
I does make me wonder how come I don't see bundles of bright green parakeet feathers at favourite plucking posts, though.
 
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Well, I had a Canadian robin singing on top of my cedar this morning, but I live about 8,000 miles or so to the west of you folks.

In a way, it seems quite for the best that the robin has gone to its natural death. I feel sorry for these accidentals, hopelessly out of touch with their kind. I read about photos being taken from 2 meters away, and I found that very disturbing.

I think the robin is better to have become part of a sparrowhawk--albeit not of any species of raptor native to his homeland.

Natural predation works. Years ago we tried to help a Ring-billed Gull recover from a totally un-natural hit from a moving car's windshield. A very good vet did all she could, and for free; but hollow bones don't mend well. We felt very sad then. But I think this robin experienced a long, strange adventure, and then it ended.

I would say, mercifully.
 
I remember a Red-necked Phalarope being taken at Slimbridge on 3rd Oct 1998 by a Sparrowhawk as well. I had just been to see it and was driving away from Slimbridge as the message came up.
 
Lincs Very Sadly The American Robin Was Killed By A Fem Sparrowhawk At
12.10pm & Was Later Videoed Being Plucked+beheaded.
 
;) Beat me to it there CJW!!! Know what you mean...probably a lovely bird to see but it just did nothing for me :h?: . Now if it had been a nice duck for example... ;)

Reader...had the same sort of thing a year or two ago up here at St Mary's. Red-necked Phalarope...or was it a Grey?... was here for two days but I didn't know about it until late on the Wednesday! The most annoying thing of all was that I had this nagging little voice inside my head telling me to go the Lighthouse when I finished work at 2pm. Stupidly, I ignored it,went straight home and later that evening,looking on the Bird Links site,realised what I had missed :C ...to say I was a bit annoyed was putting it a bit mildly!!! Hoped it would still be there on my next day off (Sunday!) but on Thursday I found out that it had been run over by a car on the Wednesday afternoon!!!

You were VERY lucky there Michael LOL ...cutting it a bit fine or what!

I went to see the Bee-eaters at Bishop Middleham on 28th August...they left the next morning!!! So glad I saw them in time...my poor hubby's ears would have been a bit battered if i'd listened to his wonderful idea of leaving the Durham trip till a couple of days later!!!

GILL
 
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Carson, I know what you mean by feeling badly for accidentals when they wander so hopelessly far from their homes, I feel the same way. But I wouldn't fret too much about the photos from 2 meters away, the Robins around here are so tame you nearly have to shoo them out of the way so you dont run them over with the lawnmower!
 
Yes, Jason, the Grey-tailed Tattler was taken by a Sprawk. :eek!: but not before many people had seen it.
and a Blyth's too among others.....

and like Chris, I too shall miss seeing more photos of that bird ;)
 
Wasn't the Skegness Bluetail in 99 taken by a Sparrowhawk? I was there the next day in any case to make sure it wasn't there. ;)
 
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