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Sparrowhawks (1 Viewer)

Leeroy

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I see sparrowhawks over my garden on a regular basis, somtimes chasing prey through the adjoining gardens, also quite a lot of eveidence of kills in the garden.
My wife called me into the garden two weeks ago to look at an injured collared dove, that she said had been caught by a cat. I realised that it was the work of a sparrowhawk & went back to the house to view the returning bird, before I could get the camera, the bird returned & flew off with the dove, I think it was a female or a juvenile, quite a large bird with very dark brown plumage.
A few days later around 1 mile away, I witnessed a sparrowhawk take out a collared dove around 20ft in front of the car & finish the kill right in front of me on the path, I think this was a male, which was smaller & more grey in colour.
The next day another sparrowhawk was being chased out of town by a seagull, right above my garden, it took the gull a while, but he won in the end, this bird was grey in colouration & I don't know if it was male or female, as the dog fight was quite spectacular & quick.

Environment is out of town suburbs, close to a golf course with a few copses, lots of quite large garden areas.

With this in mind, I would like to know the approx territory size of the sparrowhawk, considering the activity lately I am wondering whether I am seeing the same birds ?
 
Ian Newton shows that distance between active nests in woodland tends to be (roughly) 0.5 km - 2.5 km, depending on productivity, elevation, etc. Probably large suburban gardens with copses would be at the more dense end of the range? At this time of year you might be seeing migrants, or non-breeding birds or local birds about to start a new breeding season. Probably if from spring onward you regularly see hawks in the vicinity of your garden there's a fair chance they are a local pair, but right now it would be hard to predict. But I'm just waffling in the abstract because, sadly, I don't see many Sparrowhawks in my bit of East Anglia!
Brian
 
Not a direct answer to your question, but I see sparrowhawks bathing regularly in our garden ponds. They seem to like quite a good soak and will often bathe for several minutes at a time, including just sitting in the water.

If you have the space, putting in a suitable pond could be a good way to attract and see them. Ponds with gently sloping shallow edges are best, so they can wade in and choose the depth that suits them. I have mine covered with about an inch or two of play sand which helps to pretect the liner.
 
Ringing studies in towns have shown that although Sparrowhawks maintain breeding territories, hunting rights may be common to several birds in an area. One ringer caught four different Sprawks in his garden in one session!

Sparrowhawks also like ponds for hunting purposes: one has been observed deliberately drowning a Magpie it had caught in one before feeding on it.

Cunning hunters.

John
 
An experienced male Sparrowhawk seldom takes anything larger than a Starling; younger males have to learn what is worth expending the energy on... and risk/reward etc. It takes a male Sparrowhawk more than 30 minutes (maybe over an hour if the Colly stays alive for a long time and fidgets about) to eat a Collared Dove, and a small male would struggle to fly to a tree with a Collared Dove to eat, so would be exposed on the ground... albeit close to cover.

Here's two examples to illustrate my point, picture quality isn't great; one through the window, the other while I was trying to stop Pigeons landing on me ;)

Same Sparrowhawk, pictures taken one year apart. The Sparrowhawk was a 3cy+ in the second pic... 4cy+ in the first
 

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