A Sparrowhawk Visits

I woke up a few days ago and opened the curtain to see whether Pauline's good weather luck was holding. The sky was overcast. It was just after 5am so the light was poor. Then just outside my bedroom window I saw a bird: a female sparrow hawk waiting for her breakfast. Ironically I had put my cameras in the car ready for the off in the morning so had to go and retrieve one.

At 5am waiting for breakfast to emerge

This was the first time I'd seen a sparrow hawk so close and not actually in flight although one did attempt unsuccessfully to take a sparrow from the bird table some years ago and crashed into the flowers just outside the kitchen window. This evening I looked up as I was finishing dinner and there she was again sitting on the fencepost at the corner of the garden. This time the light was better but I had to take the photo through a rain-covered kitchen window. 

Here's looking at you

After a while I decided to be brave and open the back door and try again. She looked directly at me and decided that I was no immediate threat so I managed a shot or two before she flew off to seek supper over in the trees where the starlings were roosting for the night. They were less sanguine about her presence and immediately took to the sky. I had no idea there were so many starlings roosting so close to me.

After a short while she returned. 

Sitting patiently

When I went into the garden today I saw that there were lots of pigeon's feather scattered around so I assume that she has taken a pigeon whilst I've been away and is now after a second one. She certainly looks well fed even though she is a rather tatty specimen. I wonder if it was this pigeon that is no more:

Or this one?

Surely not this one?

The Hunter Hunted

A few years ago a sparrowhawk trying to pick up breakfast from my bird table misjudged the terrain  which is higher than the level of the bird table just a few metres away.  After missing its intended prey it crash-landed into the astilbes in the garden and took a few seconds to recover from its surprise and fly off.  It all happened half a dozen metres from where I was standing and so quickly that I didn't have time to get my camera.

Today, as I stepped out of the shower, my phone was ringing and the cellphone (it doesn't stop telling me a text has arrived until I acknowledge it) was indicating the arrival of several texts.  I walked through to the kitchen where the phones were and saw a sleekit white cat which I detest from up the township (who's owner proudly tells me that it catches at least one bird or animal every day) stalking something which was obviously only a yard or so away.  As I was about to hammer on the window I realised that there was a young sparrowhawk just outside with its back to the cat.  What happened then happened within a few milliseconds.  The sparrowhawk saw the cat and turned and flew off right in front of me.  Whether it had been successful in catching something I don't know but if it had been then it managed to take it with it.

As I was typing the last paragraph I realised why the sparrows have not been back to the table since that happened 4 or more hours ago: the sparrowhawk is still on patrol - I have just seen him again.

The sparrows now have much more cover than they did a few years ago because I've grown lots of bushes into which they disappear in the garden.

A few days ago I also hit on the idea of putting the bird feeder into the bird table area protected from the pigeons because they had managed t overcome every obstacle I'd used to stop them hooving out the seed from the feeders.  The pigeons will not give up but this time I'm fairly certain that I've won!

Pest Pestering Pest

This morning the midges were so bad that even the pigeons were being hounded:

Requiescat in Pace - Again

I'm sad to announce that my Pigeon pal died this morning.  Perhaps he wasn't so tame perhaps he was just so unwell that he couldn't be bothered flying off.  Perhaps he thought I could make him well again.  Do Pigeons think to the point of reasoning?  Anyway just before lunch I went to put up the new bird table I made yesterday and there he was outside my Study.  There was no sign of injury of any sort and he'd not been dead very long.  I say that not because I have any special knowledge of the period at which rigor mortis sets in but because I saw him feeding earlier on in the morning.  So I've made a note of his ring number and I'll see where racing pigeons are registered and let them know.  I don't like Pigeons in general but I'd grown quite attached to this one.

Problems With Pests

Last year I got a bit obsessed with the pigeons which deposit so much poo all over my roof and dominate the garden. This year the number is about 30 and it's becoming a serious problem. Last night when I went up the ladder to clear the Study roof (not having done so for about 2 weeks) I was astonished, not just at the amount of poo there was up there but also by the difficulty I had removing it. There are two sorts. That which is like small pellets and rolls around in the wind just causing considerable irritation. Then there is the sort that sticks like cement to the polycarbonate. I couldn't reach it all with a broom so I will have to go up onto the roof and attack it from that angle. Of course the stuff which is stuck to the polycarbonate will only come off with the power washer so I'll have to lug that up the ladder and and across the roof. What a chore.

I decided this morning that something would have to be done. So I Googled the problem. The first site I looked at looked promising: Jones and Son, Pigeon Spike Manufacturers. So I'm obviously not the only one with the problem!

What I just loved about their website - and that which prompted this posting - was the statement that "You can ask us a bird spike question here, we will get back to you within two hours, test us. If we fail we will send you a large bar of chocolate."