Sparrowhawks Vs Pigeons...

[sarwal]

I recently looked out my kitchen and saw Sparrowhawk savagely killing a pigeon then eating the entire thing apart from a bloody wing lying in the middle of my lawn. lovely. At least I thought it was a sparrowhawk after managing to Thing is I live right in central london so it was quite a surprising sight, though increasingly more common. I know of one other person who has seen a similar thing in an innercity environment. I am thinking of writing an article on this for my local paper on this and the environmental issues that are driving predators like this into towns. I would like to hear from anyone who has seen anything like this or has any information on it so I can decide if its worth writing about... Although it was a gory spectacle it was very interesting and quite unexpected. Thanks!

[sddsddean]

We regularly have a Sparrowhawk (sometimes the male, usually the female, but never together) in our garden. All the small birds (tits, sparrows etc) either fly off, or hide in the bushes! I once looked just in time to see the female take a Starling off the bird table. She sat on the ground with it for a minute (presumably to make sure she had killed it) and then flew off with it. It might seem gory, but thats (wild) life!

[campbellking]

My friend saw one on a fence in one of the town centre roads in Bedford.

[Suppressed]

That reminds me of a recent experience! I went into my bedroom and found a big white-ish stain on my window. I looked out the window and saw many feathers on the conservatory roof! And then, in the gutter there was a hawk eating a pigeon! It was disgusting! My step-dad had to remove the body, which was simply the bones and feathers - everything else had been eaten! Not pleasant! I live fairly close to a town centre and on the edge of a large University! It wasn't something I had expected!

[theren_911]

Doesn't the council hire falconers to send hawks or kites or whatever out in towns/cities to keep pigeon numbers down? I'm sure I read something about this in the local paper a couple of years ago.

[burnhal]

I am a little puzzled re your comment re the "environmental issues that are driving predators like this into towns". The predators are not "being driven nito towns". A town is not a town to a predator- it is merely an environment where it can make a living. It cares not whether it is surrounded by trees or by houses. As long as there is a safe place to raise young and a good food supply then that is what matters. I have witnessed two instances of sparrowhawks taking collared doves in my garden in Luton. It isnt disgusting or terrible as some comments have said- it is nature..it happens. Maybe we ourselves are responsible for more sparrowhawks in our gardens- we put food out... more birds arrive to feed on said food and of course the predators follow.

I think it is excedllent that predators can adapt to live in our towns- it says a lot, certainly in the case of raptors, for the health and abundance of their prey. Plenty of kestrels in towns now, I have seen sparrowhawks and peregrines in London and kites often appear over London now.

[rio116]

I am a falconer and no the council doesn't hire us to "send hawks or kites or whatever into towns to drive out pigeons"!!! Falconers are asked to fly their bird of prey,which ever kind is suited to the job,ie a falcon for birds,a hawk for mammls,to keep areas over populated by species thought of as pests,ie,pigeons,lots of starlings,gulls etc,under control. The presence of a bird of prey in the area is usually enough to scare the "pests" out of the area and the bird of prey in the meantime will have a fly,get some exercise and come back to the glove and taken home. As was mentioned,seeing a sparrow hawk on a kill is not "disgusting" it is simpley a way of live,there is a food chain,you should feel privaliged to have seen such a wonderful hawk that not many people get to see and to witness it surviving. A town,or the country,has a delicate balance of predator and prey and that should be respected and left well alone.

[felinechums]

Seeing a hawk kill its prey is a privilege, and those lucky enough to witness it are seeing nature as it is meant to be. Just because we get our "prey" from Tesco in little square polystyrene packages doesn't mean that its origin is any less gory or unpleasant for the prey animal, so to call a hawk's method of finding it dinner "disgusting" is to close your eyes to the way we ourselves live. We have sparrowhawks, buzzards and kestrels around the North Antrim coast, and they are wonderful to watch. The buzzards are amazing - they are very large and will take larger animals such as rabbits and hares. Our society has separated us from the natural world, which is why some people are disgusted to witness birds of prey hunting. At least the birds of prey attack or kill only to eat, which is more than can be said for our so-called civilised human society.

[rio116]

well said felinechum,couldn't have put it better!!!!

[hollie1586]

i live near leeds and i often see a sparrowhawk around my garden. once it knocked a pigeon off the roof and shredded it while it was alive. it was still alive for about an hour after!

[sarwal]

Well thanks for the answers everybody. I did indeed feel incredibly priveleged to see what I saw in my garden, it made me shake partly with the shock of the unexpectedness of the sight, the brutality of the kill and also the excitement of running to get my camera and manage to get two shots of it that enabled us to identify it.

It was not a disgusting sight although it wasn't pleasant to witness the tearing of the flesh.. But as you've all said, that is just the natural process of how a bird like this devours its meals.

I also know that to a bird like this town is town, country is country, but it is true to say that the countryside as it is their natural habitat.

The reason I was interested in this whole subject after witnessing this bird was that there has been a lot made in the papers recently about urban foxes in London and how their numbers have swelled in recent years, and of course the talk of culling them. Part of the reason for this is that the foxes are finding it harder to find their natural food in the countryside and inner city life has become more appealing.

I simply wondered if it was the same for other predators ie. Sparrowhawks, other birds of prey. And I also wanted to simply write something for the paper about what an interesting spectacle it was to see this kill in my own backgarden....

[felinechums]

Thanks for your reply sarwal, when I read over what I had written, I realised that it sounded as if I was criticising you - I certainly wasn't doing that, just expressing my own frustration at the double standards of our society generally. i am sure that you must have been delighted to witness this evidence of the force of nature, or you would not have felt moved to share it with us on AB.

Please please please be careful what you say in your newspaper article. Here in the north of Ireland we have had some newspaper reports that eagle owls are returning to nest in the more remote areas. Wonderful, I thought. Now a few people are beginning to come up with scaremonger stories about eagle owls taking small dogs from the end of their leads when out walking and attacking babies in prams. Nowhere has any of this been substantiated. It only takes one or two people with over-vivid imaginations to get a bad name for a creature such as a hawk - then they will be persecuted again.

I hope you continue to enjoy the wildlife around us.