I was standing quietly in the garden beneath the bare branches of an apple tree wondering whether to add to my now decaying log pile when my reverie was broken by the sound of crashing branches and the frantic flapping of wings. I quickly looked to my right to see, not twenty foot away, a female sparrowhawk land or rather tumble to the ground amongst the overhanging leaves of the artichokes. She had obviously taken her prey from either the leylandii or the bay tree above. With fierce yellow eyes and her wings outstretched and pointing forwards she shielded her prey and for good reason as this attack had not gone unnoticed. Above, the air was filled with around ten jackdaws all calling wildly and circling around the tree tops. At this point I could not see her unfortunate victim but as I moved slightly she must have suddenly realised I was there and released her grip and off flew a rather battered collared dove, its feathers ruffled, to say the least. Like a rocket the sparrowhawk was off in pursuit and within fifty yards caught up and stretching out a talon it plucked the dove out of mid-air and plunged with it to the ground out of sight amongst some large shrubs in a neighbour’s garden. The jackdaws, now joined by a magpie, followed but soon their raucous calls subsided and they flew away leaving the hawk to dine in peace.
On two occasions over the past few years I have disturbed a sparrowhawk in the garden feeding on a collared dove and at others times I have found piles of white feathers on the lawn suggesting a hawk had plucked a dove but I have never witnessed an actual kill in the garden and certainly not at such close quarters. While the smaller male might struggle with prey the size of a collared dove it is certainly no problem for the larger female. I do wonder if the proliferation of the collared dove and the more recent increase in sparrowhawk numbers are in someway linked.
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