Thursday 11 June 2009

Sparrowhawk and Father-in-law's plums

I was chatting with F-i-L yesterday morning when I heard a commotion coming from his bird feeding centre (it's a bit big to be just a bird table) and it was being caused by a sparrowhawk that had caught one of it's talons in the netting that protected the plum tree adjacent to the feeding area. Presumably it knows that the feeding centre attracts it's own food as sparrowhawks prey on song birds and pigeons etc. I was wondering how we might rescue the bird from the predicament it was in without losing our fingers, eyes, ears etc when it ripped a hole in the net and sped off. That sort of makes sense as the talons are designed to do damage, if not to plum nets specifically.

It's my first positive sighting of a sparrowhawk at close quarters so a good day.