Sparrow Hawk

[heather]

i know its not in marple but we saw one in stockport market yesterday near the church

[Dave]

Just to add to nbt's excellent list of birds seen at the Sportsman, it's also a good place to look out for buzzards. 

[admin]

If you send them to admin@marple-uk.com I will add them to the new Carnival album on the Virtual Tour.

[moonforest]

Did anyone see the fabulous falconry display yesterday? My sons took some photos and I will see if we can post them for you. 

[nbt]

If you like birds you could do worse than take a walk down the canal for a drink or some food @ The Sportsmans in Strines. Mrs NBT and I did that tonight and while we had our meal we saw *loads* of different birds on the feeders in the beer garden (or nearby) including

(Common ones first, through to the less common)
Chaffinch
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
Wood pigeon
Jay
Kestrel (male, soaring overhead rather than on the feeder!)
Blue tit
Green finch
Nuthatch
Great tit
Long tailed Tit
Bull finch (Saw three of these, 2 male and one female)


I think that's about all I can remember, I'm sure we saw more but I did have a couple of pints with my meal

[Victor M]

Great photo of the male, looks like the small bird population of Marple better watch out. If they nest the male will have to do all the hunting while the female stays with the eggs (3-6). The female has sole care of the eggs and young, while the males' role (from egg-laying through to fledgling) is to provide all food required by the female and the chicks. The female will hunt as the chicks get older, but only if the male is unable to catch adequate food by himself.

Sparrowhawks time their nesting so that they have chicks when there are plenty of fledglings of small birds, usually around June time.

Please, if anyone spots their nest, don't post the location on the forum as the eggs could be stolen, there are about 40,000 breeding pairs in the UK.

[nbt]

The male sparrowhawk came to visit us over the weekend, he sat on the fence at the bottom of the garden for almost 10 minutes! He was keeping his eye on the bird feeders in the gardens to either side. I had the time to get out my good camera and fit the long lens, but even the big lens isn't quite long enough - this 100% crop is the best I could get

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[moonforest]

Thankyou to everyone who replied to my post. Victor M, the photo is fantastic! 

[Rudolph Hucker]

Brilliant Victor - and informative too. Please post any more you get, she is a lovely specimen (I caught a brief glimpse of one at the weekend :-) but didn't have time to show the weans :-( )

Thank you!

RH.

[Aslan]

Excellent photo - well done.

[Victor M]

I managed to get a photgraph of the sparrowhawk which has been operating in my garden for the last few days.
Woodpigeon is an impressive prey item for Sparrowhawk, only the biggest females take prey this size since unlike Peregrines, they cant hit them from a dive, and have to cope with taking a bird out of a horizontal pursuit which in this case, is their own bodyweight. or heavier, so this was an impressive feat, and obviously a good meal, particularly as she would only be feeding herself at the moment. This suggests she is on territory and would be nesting nearby come late April/early May. Look out for the smaller male, similar plumage but nearly half the size and with an orangy barring to the chest and flanks.

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[jogger]

Sparrow Hawks have "a flight path" like Lisa described and anything that gets caught in it,basically get flown into.

There's been a few Wood pigeons etc eaten in my garden

On the bird theme there's pair of Hawfinches in New Mills, spent last Saturday afternoon watching these very elusive birds

[Ali Bee]

I saw one outside my old house, unfortunately it had caught a pigeon and was eating it, so I didn't look for long  Not seen one here, yet.

[Lisa Oldham]

WE irregularly see them in our garden by the Railway on seven stiles... generally flying across the garden very quickly towards the trees

also have seen them along canal.  Never seen a pair together in Marple but presume they must breed round here somewhere!!

[moonforest]

We're not far from you, just two minutes' walk from the canal, on Mount Drive/Ecclesbridge Road area.

We have a wide variety of birds in our garden which we're learning to identify. One of my favourites is a sweet little robin who visits us regularly.

But discovering those birds a few weeks back were sparrow hawks is soooo exciting!