Baby Sparrow Hawk in My Garden

I think you will find that is a Mistle thrush ......

~ I think it is a Song Thrush rather than a Sparrowhawk which has rows of colour on it's chest and would be blue coloured if it was a male~ also hasn't got a curved beak~ see the RSPB site for ID.
~at least your bird population will be safer without 3-4 predators!

yeap how embarassing!!!! It is still the first time it has visited my garden lol

~the beak is a giveaway~ but I don't have many thrushes either!
During the very cold snowy weather when we had Fireldfares,Redwings lots of Blackbirds fly in we had two small Thrushes and the most enormous Mistle Thrush~ size of a small chicken!~ didn't stay for long before they all moved on together...

I know how you feel, I am the same ,I spotted this bird whicg I had never seen before in our new in the making wild life garden and I could not find out which it is , then it came again yesterday and it turns out to be a gold finch, I could only see the black/white and brown bits and it,s red head the first time and the I spotted the yellow on it's wings in flight. Who would think a gold finch is black/white/brown and red? It does give you a thrill though to see them in your garden, we are honoured.

What ever it is it is quite beautiful - how lucky are you!! When we first moved into out estate we didnt have a bird population for the first few years and it was horrible - until we started planting trees and bushes etc (although now when they wake me up really early I do wonder!!!)

That was very interesting reading your blog -where are the proper lenses when we need them... I know the feeling too well... I have Nikon D90 camera, just bought it in January - and already have 2 lenses and waiting for my 3rd to arrive today... my first lens is 18-105 mm Nikkor which is ok for general shooting... but I cannot take macro shots with it unfortunatelly... so I bought another lens - 50 mm - it's better for flower and plant photography but - still not for macro... but close-ups and portraits look fantastic... I really like it... so I was still looking for cheap lens I could take macro pictures with... found this at Jesspos - Tamron 70-300mm F4/5.6 DI LD Macro (Nikon AF) - 300 mm is good for chasing birds (lol) and it says in specification it has got a switch for macro... well - I hope I can test it today - so I will let you know how it works.

lovely pics whichever bird it is great.....

In my experience sparrow hawks don't sit around in the garden they fly through at breakneck speed trying to catch the smaller birds on the wing! Can't be a little disconcerting when one flies past you when you aren't expecting it. Our local hawk has a regular run from the front to the back of the house passing where the birds feed.

Okasia I've got a D90 too. I looked at three lenses, Standard, 70-300 and the 'nifty fifty' The reason why I bought none of them was that I didn't fancy hauling them around, they're heavy too. My 18-200 is a good all rounder.

~Yes MG they usually make high speed runs~a few months ago the local female was sitting on the roof of the bird table in the back garden staring in through the window~didn't get the camera in time~ we were mesmerised!

Please Okasia let me know how your new lens goes. I love bird watching. Especially now, as a couple of us in my street are feeding the birds and putting up nest boxes. The lens I have is 18mm -55mm and its useless for bird shots!!! I am very new to the Nikkon D3000 as the kids bought it for my birthday. Never had an SLR before. So any tips gratefully recieved and you Heron. Sounds like your a dab hand!!!

Good luck with the bird photos Great... not the easiest of things to get a picture of

Thanks MG. I did see an actual sparrowhawk sitting on my garden fence a few weeks ago, I was so amazed I forgot all about the camera!!!. My daughter distracted me today; I said at the time todays bird was one of the thrush family

lovely pics pauline and a lovely bird.. i`m lucky if i see a pigeon in my garden !

Unfortunatelly my lens didn't arrive today... this is also my first SLR - but what a difference.. and really your lense is not for birds shot. I think it will be great for close-ups, for portraits... my first lense 18-105 would be better, but Heron's or even something up to 300mm should be enough. I am still taking pictures with automatic mode, my friend suggested to set it onto 'P' setting - and colours are much better... I also use polarizing filter - and quality has improved a lot. UV filter is just a waste of money.... just ask if you have any questions - I will be happy to share my little knowledge (lol).

Okasia, Im so sorry you didnt get your lens. I'm still waiting for something I ordered 3 weeks ago. Its horrible when things don't arrive. Oh regards the uv filter thats the only one I've got haha. Was thinking of getting a 300mm lens a bit pricey. Got to save a bit of money 1st. We can learn together can't we . Im still using auto settings. But we will both learn. thanks for thant. Pauline

Beautiful shots of the bird it's what makes all our gardens a heaven for the wildlife that pass by them and for us to sit and enjoy:-)

its a song thrush pauline and a lovely one to ;o))

Always good to get new visitors to the garden and this one is no exception:0)

I leave my uv filter on just to protect the lens. Keep forgeting to use the polarizing lens lol.

Heron sorry mate but you've lost me; not hard to do lol Im new to this SLR business. Please explain what a polarizing lens is. Thanks. Can you also tell me what lens I should use when trying to capture a sparrow hawk in flight. Got one visiting the garden on the odd occassion. Exciting stuff!!

I'm new to photography too but I have a friend who knows his stuff, we go 'togging' every week, there's three of actually, Compo, Cleggy and Foggy. I think a polarizing lens is more to do with tweaking the light, bit like those fancy sunglasses. It's also useful for taking shots of water which brings out the blue and it helps prevent reflection when shooting through a glass window. There's so much more and they're worth the money but like you I've enough to do learning about the camera. If you can 'capture a Hawk in flight' you're a better man than me Gungadin' You'll need a wide aperture and a fast shutter speed and loads of luck. It's good fun though, I practice on Seagulls.

birds of pray have curved over beaks for ripping flesh but still lovley to see .

thanks nosey I will pay more attention to the beaks!

good thinking great lol xx

He he...had a chuckle reading some of the comments! Reminds me of a friend of mine that told me a 'green parrot' kept visiting her veranda. Turned out to be a green woodpecker LOL

lol!

Yeah I did Mg!!

Glad I'm not the only one!

we have green ring necks living native in norfolk as it goes and theres a small population of african greys in a wood in a villadge not far from me .

Sounds as though you live in a nice part of the world nosey

yes i guess i do great but my ex misses made me see this as it goes . ive lived here 47 years and its easy to get used to things . she came from near liverpool .i think theres some lovley places if you look everywear big and small.i live in what was the second biggest trading town second only to london in the whole of england when boats were our only way of shipping in bulk .dads army was shot in and around thetford . infact i used to serve them after filming at the bell hotel as a teenager .bodisear excuse my terrible spelling kicked a$%£ round here in her day and ofcourse we have thomas pain and the wrights of man .im going to do a blog on it now i think lol.