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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Bean" data-source="post: 1427129" data-attributes="member: 64331"><p>ChrisKten: Your account and pictures of Sparrowhawks prompt me to add a similar event last Thursday, 5th March, when I witnessed a Sparrowhawk killing a Pigeon on the path of the house next door. The Sparrowhawk took its prey behind a bin and then tore the Pigeon to pieces, feathers flying everywhere. Thinking it was unseen, the Sparrowhawk then spent about 40 minutes eating its lunch, not knowing I was watching (with bated breath) from a bedroom window. I had seen a similar kill a couple of years ago, at the bottom of my rear garden; that too had been a Sparrowhawk feasting on a Pigeon, and taking half an hour or more to do so. It seems Sparrowhawks like to settle into a corner so they know their back is protected, and then follow a regular routine of eating/looking every few seconds, for as long as it takes to finish their bloody meal; not very pleasant to watch, but that's nature in the raw, and fascinating. The latest incident had a touch of humour, to relieve the gory scene: while the Sparrowhawk was ripping feathers from the carcase, a Blackbird happened to land on the fence nearby and initially didn't notice the carnage a few feet beneath him; then the realisation dawned, and the look on the Blackbird's face was, literally, "shock/horror"... I don't recall hearing a sonic boom, but I have never seen a Blackbird take off so fast... equalled only, maybe, by an Avro Vulcan in a vertical climb!</p></blockquote><p></p>

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