[ANHBUC]

My daughter was having a cup of tea in the garden this morning and heard flapping on the drive.  When she had a look it was a female Sparrowhawk with a feral pigeon.  It flew off so she asked me to check that the pigeon was dead and not suffering.  When I went to look the Sparrowhawk was back and tucking in.  I managed to get a photo but it scared her and she tried to take off with it but failed.  So now we have a corpse on the drive waiting for her or another scavenger to eat it.     A couple of crows have just arrived in the garden so they might have their eyes on it.

They will have to wait as she is back to claim her prey.   

[joyfull]

as cruel as it may seem to the pigeon watching a bird of prey in action is an amazing sight to see. However now you know you have a sparrow hawk in your area keep your bantams and any chicks that you hatch safe.
Great top photo 

[ANHBUC]

We have always had sparrowhawks hunting across our garden.  I do keep the chicks under cover but was concerned about the bantams when I saw it trying to pick up the pigeon.  Hopefully the turkeys will put it off coming in the back garden at the moment.

I think it has picked the pigeon off my neighbours roof and landed on our drive as there is a 6' fence between us so must have glided down with it.

[splash101]

We've had 2 in the garden this week, a male sat on top of the aviary a few minutes before our red rump scared it off and this morning a female sat on top of the garage roof.

We dont get them that often but this year we've had them in quite a bit, probably due to the aviary.

In November we had something considerably bigger than a sparrowhawk, possibly a buzzard but im not that too hot on birds of prey. It sat on the back of our garden chair for 5-10 minutes in the pouring rain. It was sodden but still looked magnificent (magnificent in the way that it wasnt eating anything of mine).

joyfull, they are amazing. One of the lakes my husband fishes has lots of red kites flying over and they are huge but so graceful, also near a chicken farm so not so good for the chickens

[joyfull]

I have seen red kites flying in Northamptonshire - beautiful 

[JaK]

Wow, what a stunning bird! Has it been back for it's dinner yet?

[ANHBUC]

Yes she has eaten most of it and made a total mess of the drive, feathers everywhere.     Will leave it until tomorrow in case she returns to finish her meal.   

[Elvira]

We watched a sparrow hawk in our garden making short work of a sparrow - sword swallowing its legs down one at a time. I had expected it to leave more but when we went out after it had flown off (having done the most enormous poop!) all we found were feathers left - no beak or skull or anything like that.  Really amazingly beautiful bird (although we did feel slightly guilty filling up the bird feeder to lure down its next light snack...)

[splash101]

We've just had another visit from a large female, delicately balanced on the washing line before going around the back of the aviary.
 
It cant get into the aviary but its enough to spook the birds inside and we've got a pair of finches sitting on 4 eggs.

[ANHBUC]

She must be really hungry looking for such small birds.  She would have had a good choice of feral pigeons at ours this morning.  The roof over the road from us was covered in them.  That might have been the dining table the kestrel yesterday grabbed her meal from.   

[ANHBUC]

Well waste not want not.   

[Spana]

Here one I caught earlier 



Sorry ANHBUC, couldn't resist.    But i can tell you from my own experience that you do not want to get anywhere near those claws Its hard to believe the strength in such a small creature :blink:

[ANHBUC]

I think that one needs a few of our pigeons.   

[Elvira]

What a fantastic photo Spana! We once did a falconry course with all sorts of different birds of prey - they really are incredible birds and it is amazing to watch them hunting in the wild (particularly when they come back to perch on your arm). I can see how it is a really addictive thing to do although you felt you should be dressed up in a doublet and hose to do it properly!

The falconer had a pair of Skops Owls which were like Bert and Ernie off the Muppets!

[splash101]

Great Pics, even the picked clean carcass.

We get a fair amount of pigeons for them to choose from but 2 doors down have magpies nesting in their tree every year at the moment the males are just starting to fight over who's getting the tree this year. 5 were congregating on the roof today but a couple of years ago there were 9 on the roof at one time. I didnt know whether to salute them or run. Usually the magpies will see off the pigeons once breeding season is upon us.

The chickens made me laugh, they hid