Garden Bird Drama

[Levo-Lon]

Female Sparrow hawk, the females are a lot bigger than the males, and predominantly brown with white bars..
It will hunt in the area for a few days and move on.

Enjoy watching a master of flight

 

[potsy]

Nice..

Have never seen one of those in the garden, but have returned home to find a mess of feathers from one that had seen off a pigeon.

 

[Dave7]

The likelyhood is female Sparrowhawk but the photo does make it look big even without perspective.
Less likely to be a Goshawk as has been said but strange things happen in bird watching.
Some years ago we saw an Alpine Chough near Holyhead. Many of the experts said it wasn't possible. Then 3 weeks later someone got a photo of it.
Similarly, years ago we had a Parakeet land on our bird feeder and I got good photos of it......the first recorded sighting in the North West.
Nice spot though @doughnut

 

[steveindenmark]

We had a hawk trying to take birds from our bird table. The hawk had a regular run in and so I hung a piece of reonet in the apple tree. the usual birds could get through but it deterred the hawk

 

[Oldfentiger]

The likelyhood is female Sparrowhawk but the photo does make it look big even without perspective.
Less likely to be a Goshawk as has been said but strange things happen in bird watching.
Some years ago we saw an Alpine Chough near Holyhead. Many of the experts said it wasn't possible. Then 3 weeks later someone got a photo of it.
Similarly, years ago we had a Parakeet land on our bird feeder and I got good photos of it......the first recorded sighting in the North West.
Nice spot though @doughnut

Agree with all that.
January 2010 we had a pair of Ortolan Buntings in our garden, on the feeders.
Shouldn’t have been here as they normally reside in southern France.
Stayed around 3 weeks then disappeared.

 

[Fab Foodie]

In any case, watching raptors is a good Hobby ;-)

 

[Fab Foodie]

It’s a condor.

To be honest my first thought was Meadow Pippet....

 

[Oldfentiger]

In any case, watching raptors is a good Hobby ;-)

See what you did there

 

[Fab Foodie]

See what you did there

I’m magic with words, just like Merlin....

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I get a sparrowhawk comes through once in a while, she usually takes (unsurprisingly) an unlucky / slow sparrow from the bird feeder.
My pigeons are all big fat wood pigeons and I'd be surprised if the sparrowhawk takes those, I've not seen it happen yet in 7 years.

 

[Cycleops]

I remember being in Saffron Walden on a busy Saturday afternoon when a Hawk of some description brought a pigeon to ground. It looked at the bemused shoppers got spooked and flew off letting the it's prey go.

 

[tom73]

Female Sparrowhawk

 

[matticus]

Can you rent a Sparrowhawk? I really hate the noise of Wood Pigeons, and a couple are nest-building in the trees overlooking our back-garden.

 

[Dave7]

Can you rent a Sparrowhawk? I really hate the noise of Wood Pigeons, and a couple are nest-building in the trees overlooking our back-garden.

hahaha. I often say god must have run out of nice bird songs when he created them. A truly dreadful boring sound.

 

[tom73]

Just enjoy the wildlife around you it's one thing at the moment that everyone can enjoy with little risk to others.