Poor Blackbird

[cecil39]

Every day and every evening we were serenaded by the lovely song of our local blackbird up on his telegraph post, then yesterday morning we woke to silence, we found a patch of black feathers on the lawn, and not a bird in sight, the poor chap has been snatched by the damned hawk, such a sad day, one minute singing his little heart out, the next sudden death and his mate left to cope alone, but its an ill wind as they say, other birds are already taking his feathers away to line their own nests.

[horseshoes]

:-(

[mrs.chappie]

Very sad Cecil.

I used to feed a lovely tame blackbird, she used to come into my porch and sit on the tub of mealworms, waiting to be fed. One morning I saw a sparrowhawk take her. It was horrible to witness. It's nature's way, I know, but still very sad.

[marval]

What a shame, unfortunately that is what happens.

[boxtops]

:-(

Very sad, but it happens. The blackbird next door is busy worming - it made me realise how difficult it must become for them when so many people now pave over their gardens, making it far more difficult to find worms.

[Chipchopper]

Its a sad fact of life, we have to accept.
My old dad used to say "Nature in the raw is seldom mild"

[Tilly2]

'Our' Sparrowhawk sitting on the garden fence for about twenty minutes yesterday. Fortunately, all the other birds had disappeared. She is a magnificent bird but I hate it when she uses our garden as a dining table. Sadly, it happens frequently.

[frugalfred]

Yea, I hate sparrowhawks. One hangs about on my fence near the bird-feeders. Last year it took a collared dove! Still, I suppose it's the balance of nature.
At least with local cats I can fire my powerful water-pistol at them!

[paddywak]

We've a sparrowhawk which perches on the TV aerial of our neighbours and regularly takes birds around the area and I must admit it's beautiful in a morbid way to watch it in action.Trish however hates it with a passion since it ate one of "her" bluetits,I think if I let her have the key she'd be staked out with the .410 looking for revenge.

[anneasquith]

its nature.

[Milvus]

When you are setting up your feeders, it is worth thinking about room for feeding birds to scatter if a hawk/falcon attacks or make the attack approach difficult. They will use those sites with a high success rate more than the tricky ones. Try not to create a fly through fast food joint :)

[frugalfred]

That's good advice, milvus.

[nungate]

I once had a sparrow hawk fly into my living room window with a blackbird in its mouth, I always wondered if he was just being greedy as one my cats was lying on the window sill (on the inside) and maybe fancied him for dinner too! Happily, the blackbird was dropped and got away - serve him right for picking off all the little songbirds he had been feeding on.

[pusskin]

We very rarely see a hawk in our garden, and when it does appear, we see a quick fluttering of the feeding birds on perches inches away, dive into the big firethorn bush very close by. Fingers crossed, they have never caught a bird--yet