sparrowhawk v. garden wildlife

[oldmoleskins]

I have just watched 'my' sparrowhawk take its third (semi-tame, ex racing) pigeon in four days. I have 5 pigeons left from nine that live in the old stables.

We have a wonderful cross-section of urban and rural garden owners at GW, as well as international representation. What would you do about this?

I would stress this poll is academic insofar as I have decided which course to take, but I'd be interested in others' opinions.

I would also point out that a) of course, it kills songbirds as well and b) option 4 interferes with the local distribution - I guess they are territorial.

OM.

Big PS: as piggingardener has pointed out, it may be illegal to shoot it. For the purposes of this poll, don't worry about the law - it's your solution to a real problem I'm after - how would you want to deal with this if you could do as you wish.

[piggingardener]

This is a very difficult dilemma OMS.

You can't shoot the hawk, it's illegal and would be wrong anyway IMO.

You could relocate the pigeons, but the songbirds would suffer.


If you use a decoy hawk, it will only move and attack someone elses birds.

We have a pair of visiting sparrowhawks who do catch sparrows in our garden. However, we have three pairs of sparrows nesting in our loft, each of which had at least four broods this year. That's an awful lot of sparrows. At least if the numbers are kept at a reasonable level, some of them will survive the winter because there will be enough food to go round. On the other hand, much as I love the sparrows, they are not pets like your pigeons...

PG

[Spruance]

Well I'm with the Sparrowhawk.

Yes there are seemingly more of them these days, but surely that is a good thing as it represents nature in harmony with itself.

As you are out in the wilds, domestic cats are probably not a problem for you as much as they are where I live. Not a day goes by without there has been at least one cat spotted in the garden. Cats are also indiscriminate killers of garden birds. Let us not forget that the hawk is hunting for food whilst the cats hunt for amusement.

Also since we seem to have more sparrows in the garden than squares on a chess board, I don't think we will miss any. I can see that it would be an issue if valuable racing pigeons were the 'prey' but can't you have some sort of arrangement whereby the pigeons have bells on their legs like the jessies that captive falcons/hawks wear. This might distract the hawk long enough for the pigeons to reach safety.

Spruance

[Deleted]

I voted for - yes, leave nature to take its course.

Sparrow hawks, like cats, pick off the old, sick and weak.

How old are the pigeons BTW?

[sleepysunday]

Sparrow hawks, like cats, pick off the old, sick and weak.

Kind of like the NHS for birds then, eh?

[oldmoleskins]

don't want to sway the vote - but I "inherited" 4 when I moved in. The flockette has been swollen by one new arrival and pigeon passion. At the moment, I'd say the death toll is a mix of young and old - but they are/were all healthy.

OM.

Please take no notice of the illegal[/i] concerns - as I said before, I want your views on the ideal solution, so forget incidentals like a transient law... we're talking principles[/i] here...

And - in case you haven't taken part in a poll before, it is anonymous and you only get one go! I see we have 69 views and 12 votes...

OM.

[Chuckles]

Oh dear what a dilema.

As it's had some of the pigeons I'd now try and scare it away.

[oldmoleskins]

So, BB - that's option 4 - have you voted? I can't alter the poll once it's underway, so "scare it away" isn't an option as such...

OM.

[Deleted]

No. 4 for me. If I had a problem with my nicest pets being eaten for dinner, I'd probably be out there running around waving my arms like a banshee to so the sparrowhawk would be inclined to go and find it's dessert elsewhere.

I've lost one sparrow (that I know about) to our pet hawk and in the global scheme of things, I think that's about right so I nearly voted No. 1.

This is nature at work. These things will happen !

[4pygmies]

I voted for the sparrowhawk to be left to do its job. Tough for the pigeons but that's life. When a fox got my favourite chook, Beryl, last year I was upset but the fox was just doing its thing. Poor Beryl was getting on a bit and it was a quicker way to go than by a disease she couldn't tell me about (I don't speak "chicken" sadly). And she had a lovely free ranging life with no illness or troubles. But back to the sparrowhawk! They are amazing birds with a specific role in nature which they do efficiently and with precision. Your pigeons will have to wise up OM!

[Chuckles]

oldmoleskins said:

So, BB - that's option 4 - have you voted? I can't alter the poll once it's underway, so "scare it away" isn't an option as such...

OM.

Yep OM I did vote (No 4 qualified no, try a hawk decoy and scare it away)

[Deleted]

Let nature take its course.

I would shoot a cat long before I found it necessary to do anything about a sparrow hawk.

Until recently the feeders have been full of birds. Now one, maybe two sparrow hawks are regular visitors (since the swallows and housemartins left and stopped giving a warning) and the number of birds has declined markedly - probably just frightened away. Maybe they will come back as their need for food increases. I know it will upset some readers but it would make my day if I could see a sparrow hawk catch its prey. They are so fast and manoeuvrable and such beautiful birds.

[Chuckles]

Thought about you this morning OMS, sparrows were busy feeding when a Sparrow Hawk swooped over, my god did they move off fast and they were very nervous for quite a while after. None caught I might add.

[Deleted]

Back in the summer - I was just coming out of my office at the bottom of the garden when there was a comotion above in the Laurel that forms the neighbouring boundary - out crashed a Hawk and a Starling. Startled, the Starling escaped and made to underneath out brid table where the Hawk got him again but quickly released him seeing me - no doubt in a bit of a panic the Hawk shot passed me and crashed into the office windows and lay motionless.

I sat with the Hawk in my hands stroking him - though he looked lifeless, but soon the tallons twitched and for quite a small bird - them's tallons are big. Soon I sat him on the top of a fence and he flew immediately low across other gardens.

He's been back regularly and knocked off Collared Doves that seem to breed replacements in pace with his appetite.

[Deleted]

This is a purely personal opinion but if you were in my shoes I would let nature take its course. I would be greatly honoured if I had a bird of prey as a lodger, but being in the middle of a city, I doubt that will ever happen.

[oldmoleskins]

two (nervous looking) pigeons left, gang...

OM.

[Plocket]

Oh what a shame. It's a terrible dilema Moley but I do believe in nature doing it's thing, but it sounds as though it's picking off birds you have a bond with. Are the pigeons friendly enough to keep caged for a while? Just until the sparrow-hawk realises it's not going to get any more meals from your garden?

[oldmoleskins]

friendly enough to catch? nooo, just friendly enough to feed... luckily for them, this means they don't have to 'fly the gauntlet' away from the buildings central to my plot, over the open paddocks and beyond to open farmland. They can - and at the moment, do - choose to hang around a lot!

OM.

[Chuckles]

Hawk visited again around 10am today, it perched on the top rail of some trellis just for a few seconds. Just got the camera at the window as it flew away, probably wouldn't have been a good pic anyway...........my windows need cleaning

[oldmoleskins]

Don't know if this is good news or declaration of an easy breakfast... have new 'baby pidge' perched on the door squeaking at me - so we're back up to three. In my limited experience of pigeon rearing, they don't go outside for a couple of days and get fed outside for some time afterwards, so it will spend a bit of time perched on the roof.

It has drawn the short straw on the camouflage front - lots of white in it...

OM.

[Cheerypeabrain]

Whilst I was in the GH at around 11.30am I heard a BANG..looked over and saw some sort of hawk (probably sparrowhawk) had crashed onto next door's garage roof clutching one of the collared doves that visit my garden. I can't be certain what sort of bird it was but it was much larger than the dove. I crept out of the GH and into our garage where OH was working...but by the time we came out again it'd gone...so OH doesn't believe me ..... We live 3 miles from the city centre but have quite a few parks and 'green spaces' (including a golf course) nearby..but I've never seen a bird of prey that close before...VERY exciting.
Just went out and fed the dove's companion as it's sitting on the tv ariel looking forlorn.....

[Chuckles]

They are lovely to see but poor Dovey all alone now . Not seen the one round here today. Hope I don't see it take any of my Sparrows or other birds that come into the gdn .

I'm sure I read somewhere that the males take the smaller birds and the females the larger birds like Doves.

[oldmoleskins]

seems likely - the females are bigger and strong enough to have a go at small rabbits - or as I saw the other day when it was sick of pigeon, pigeon, pigeon, - squirrel.

I saw a merlin fly into a window at school, sadly with terminal results (for the merlin, obviously not me...) that was a beautiful little bird.
The school was one of those 'glass boxes' and I think it must have thought it could fly right through...

OM.

[Cheerypeabrain]

Looking in a book we now reckon it might have been a kestrel (male) although wonder if they'd be big enough to take a dove (although they are quite small doves) The only clear view I had was of the head..and the only photo I've seen that looks similar was a Kite on the RSPB site...it CAN'T have been a Kite.....we'll probably never really know what it was...unless it turns up again. I'm just grateful to have seen such a beautiful bird....

[oldmoleskins]

cbp, main difference is that kestrels hover and dive on prey, sparrowhawks chase and ambush... so any crashes are more likely to be sparrowhawk in pursuit than kestrel swooping, if that helps...

OM.

[Cheerypeabrain]

It was DEFINITELY an ambush ( so it must've been a sparrowhawk!)..some bloke at work was poopooing the very thought that I'd seen a bird of prey at all (he must've been talking to my old man) he said that they aren't usually seen around here. I'm not (completely) daft...I know what I saw! there's something distinctive about the look of a hawk...and the way it holds itself...astonishingly beautiful. I'm still terribly chuffed (no matter what OH thinks!) Thank you for not immediately thinking I was hallucinating OM.

[Plocket]

Hawks of various types are getting more and more popular around towns and cities these days Cheery so I doubt you are hallucinating. We live close to a town and regularly see buzzards and other BoPs, and as you say they are quite distinctive. And OH's firm have had some sort of BoP nesting outside one of the 9th floor windows of their city officeblock - some bird expert came to see it earlier this year!

Update: OH says it was a Perigrine Falcon!

[Deleted]

Voted for leaving well alone which humans should learn to do as far as possible with all wildlife. It is interfering that has messed the whole system up. Farmers kill rabbits, foxes don't have enough rabbits and kill livestock, so farmers kill foxes - a viscious circle that is apparent in many areas. Animals will balance their numbers in a sustainable way - they have too, if they don't they die. Humans, generally, have no interest in balancing their numbers or activities in a sustainable way and as a result, the planet is dying (but don't worry, nature will always have the last laugh and it will outlast us) Cats, our pets, do far more damage to bird populations and their numbers are at unsustainable levels because humans sustain them with farmed food. The sparrowhawk will not kill so many that it has nothing to eat and you have nothing to look at.

Peregrine Falcons reguarly nest on Lincoln Cathedral My lotty is on the nearest site to Lincoln Cathedral but they seem to have little impact on the pigeons . We also have buzzards in the skies above quite reguarly - hoping they take the rabbits when nobody is about.

[Chuckles]

OMG just had a mighty crash against my kitchen window, Sparrow Hawk alert.................... bet it has a headache now, I don't think it got lunch

[oldmoleskins]

Went to stash some gardening stuff away in "gardening stable" and saw sparrowhawk was trapped inside next one (they intercommunicate, and garden one is garden stuff and pigeons, next door is stored furniture) anyway, went inside and there were drifts of white feathers everywhere and a half-eaten pigeon on an old chair - and a sparrowhawk glaring at me from a bookcase.
Closed doors and went indoors for camera, but when I got back it flew straight out of a broken window before I could get a pic. It must have chased the pigeon in that way.

Now it knows the way in and out, it'll probably regard the place as a sort of delicatessen...

OM

ps We still have three - a 'stranger' has been co-opted by the residents and lured back here, probably to act as lunch for the hawk. It turned up yesterday, the same day that baby pidge was 'got' in the stable. The others probably aren't talking to it now.