Jane Turner said:
Well as long as they carry on eating pigeons that ok. Plenty of them in urban envirnments. Mind you Sparrowhawks aren't much good a catching pigeons... big females can just about manage a Collared Dove if they are hungry.
That's the problem - how can you teach Sparrowhawks that racing pigeons are not on the menu, but that feral pigeons are okay?
One 'expert' came up with a feather-brained scheme where pigeons would be smeared with a foul-tasting substance and then deliberately released for the Sparrowhawk to attack and kill. Called 'Taste Aversion', the 'expert' claimed that the hawk would eventually learn to leave pigeons alone. But how many pigeons would be slaughtered in the process?
This would be sheer bl**dy cruelty in my book, as the 'goo' would impair the pigeon's ability to fly, giving it no chance of escape at all. And by the time the hawk got a 'taste' it would be too late for the pigeon anyway. Even if it survived, the pigeon's natural instinct would be to preen itself, resulting in one helluva mess.
Apart from that, it is against the law anyway to release one animal for another to chase and kill and I have no doubt that pigeon fanciers wouldl bombard both the police and the RSPCA with complaints if this scheme was ever tried!
As for their ability to catch racing pigeons, the Sparrowhawk will almost invariably come a poor second to a racing pigeon in level flight. But the hawk turns the tables by using a low-level attack, where it whips around the corner of a building such as pigeon loft, or through a convenient gap in a hedge to surprise its prey. This often happens when the racing pigeons are either taking a bath close to their loft, or shortly after while they are still drying out.
When it comes to the size of prey a Sparrowhawk can kill, the hen can, and often does, take racing pigeons. If she is disturbed, it is not unkinown for her to take off and carry the victim some distance before resuming her meal. That's the hardest part for pigeon fanciers to accept, because unlike the Peregrine Falcon which usually kills its prey outright by the sheer force of its strike, the Sparrowhawk simply pins it down and starts ripping off strips of flesh from the still living pigeon, which can take up to 20 minutes to die a slow, lingering death.
Having eventually killed a racing pigeon and dined on it, the Sparrowhawk makes no attempt to conceal the remains. In theory, the 'experts' tell us there is still enough meat for another two meals at least. But even if she does return for 'seconds', the carcass has probably been comsumed by a fox or, worse still, picked up and taken home by 'Tiddles' who then wrongly gets blamed for the killing. In the meantime, Mrs Sparrowhawk goes off to kill yet another racing pigeon.
A bit removed from Farming Practices and Declining Songbirds where the thread started, but hopefully of interest!
Anthony