Male Sparrowhawk

Gosh, he's well disguised in that tree, and such fierce looking birds close up

Must admit i had to look twice to see him, really blends in does'nt he.

Yes Bamboo, both he and the female are very hard to spot when in the trees, occasionally they land on the hedge and I can see better, but took me a while to focus in on him today.

Well spotted Tet , he is so well diguised !

he looks as if he is having a very long stare ~ is he looking at you doing your gardening or your cooking?

great pic Tetra :o)

I think it was Sparrow Diane Sticki..there were hundreds gibbering in the hedge..but he didnt get it today!
I always know by their continuous alarm calls that its a bird of prey Amy/Clarice, and despite scouring the garden with binoculars I sometimes dont see them til they fly off, they blend so well. The sparrow alarm call is intermittant for a cat and very disjointed for magpies.
The other thing about the sparrowhawk is their silent flight. They are very much like owls in that respect.One flew behind Ken's head one day, almost touching and he never heard a thing!

thats almost spooky ~ the silent flight!!

Sparrow Diane!!! dont think i have that recipe ~ be a ray mears type thing!!!

The only interesting flying things that we get are bats........

Sore point for me that Meanie - we used to get pipistrelles flying at the front, right past my window across to the other building - but not now, because they've changed the light bulbs on the landings (all glass to the outside) here and they're so bright, the bats don't come any more. I'm really annoyed about it...

I'm watching a sea eagle just now

On a program about north Uist, may go there next year??

They're good to watch as they emerge at dusk!

The sea eagle or the bat?

There used to be a little bat that flew round here at dusk but I haven't seen him for a while

He looks as though he means business..glad I'm not a little bird ! :o((

Well captured Tet, he knows where to sit so he blends in....

Good photo' he does look fierce though. I love to see them hovering.

Sparrowhawks dont really hover Val, they are crafty birds, they fly low over hedges and swoop down over the other side to try and catch the little ones unawares..we are careful to put our feeders close to hedge cover but we have seen a few successful forays.

I think its Kestrels that do the hovering thing - we see those here over the fields, amazing to watch - hovering, then a sudden swoop and dive...

I stand corrected O wise one. ;0))

Wow! In the garden.

Yes Tog, and he makes the sparrows more nervous than ever cos he is small enough to poke into the hedge unlike his larger girlfriend.

Something got a bird in our back garden a couple of days ago - loads of feathers everywhere. We think it was probably a sparrowhawk as there were no bits of carcase, only feathers. A bit upsetting but what can you do?

Lovely to see, Tetrarch, but not when they're working :)

Agree Gee, they are fabulous birds and they have to live and thats nature..I have seen a good clean kill, which strangely didnt disturb me, to a bad kill which did!

can see by the whitewash that the tree is well frequented by your little friends. It's a relief that those piercing yellow eyes didn't hone in on any of your brood. they are lovely but lethal. Came home from town last week to find a HUGE sharp shinned hawk in the maple behind the shed. He was looking for my squirrels and chipmunks and I let him know he wasn't welcome in no uncertain terms!

Sparrowhawks are beautiful birds and a member of the group of hunting birds that kill to survive. This picture shows how well they can camouflage themselves. I know it seems savage the way they kill other birds, but when you think about it we go to the butchers shop or supermarket to buy meat that has been killed for us to eat. Usually everything eats something to survive, it's nature.......and what a wonderful diversity of flora and fauna we have around us too. Let's hope in years to come we can look after our planet a bit better than what we do.