BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ChrisKten" data-source="post: 1511451" data-attributes="member: 69033">Ah, that explains it.And now for something completely different.|=)|At about 6 pm. each day (earlier in the Winter) I clean up the garden. I use a Dustpan and brush to sweep up any mess (which is mostly nut shells), and wash down the paving stones with Disinfectant. I also give the Pigeons their final feed, and put one last lot of bread in the scraps feeder for the Starlings and Sparrows.So I'm standing in the middle of the garden close to the trees (small garden), dustpan and brush in one hand, a few nuts in the other. On the dustpan are about 6 Pigeons, and a few more are on my arms. All of a sudden something flies by my head into the tree; it was too fast to see what it was. All of the Pigeons, Starlings, Sparrows, Collard Doves, fly off like their lives depended on it. The dustpan and brush are knocked out of my hand by the Pigeons and I'm standing alone in the garden.So I look into the tree and see nothing. A few seconds later the largest male (couldn't miss the orange/brown barring and cheeks) Sparrowhawk I've ever seen flies from the tree to the fence at the back, chasing a Starling. There's a Blackberry (I think) bush growing up and around the fence, so there's lots of thorns; the Starling had dived into the bushI think the Sparrowhawk, which was only a few feet in front of me, looked at me for about 5 seconds, then flew off. The Starling hopped along the top of the fence, then flew off as well.If only I'd had my camera in my hand I would have got my best picture so far of a Sparrowhawk.</blockquote>

Verification