What would you do in this situation ?

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

During the breeding season we had a sparrowhawk move into our area, a few months on and he/she still seems active in the area as ive had a few tell tale signs like finding a fine circle of small feathers on the lawn where another bird has killed another and the garden is quiet, strangley quiet. Ive not seen it for a while but i`m positive ive heard it in the big trees at the back as they have that unique screeching sound.

The is the conundrum i have, we live in a fairly residential area and at one end of the garden are some very well established large trees which is where the sparrowhawk seems to be, originally i had the bird table and most of the feeders close to the house to try and deter the sparrowhawk but i found i was getting a lot of bird strikes on the windows when they were at this end of the garden, i found a dead finch one day that had hit the window, i`m suprised their havn`t been more birds killed when striking the windows as it happens a lot.

I thought i better move them to the far end of the garden where the windows wouldn`t be a factor, since i have moved them to the far end of the garden where the established trees are its like i`m moving lunch right towards the sparrowhawk where i have found a few circles of fine feathers where a bird has obviously been killed.

This isn`t about the sparrowhawk killing birds as thats nature and i understand that, its about whats best for the birds, if i put the bird table, feeders and water close the house i am getting far too many birds flying into the windows but if i put everything at the far end of the garden under the trees then i`m delivering the birds to the sparrowhawk and giving he/she large pickings.

When the bird table and feeders are close to the house we get a lot of finches, doves and pigeons but when i move them towards the trees we get virtually nothing, its as if they know whats lurking down that end of the garden. I havn`t seen a blackbird for months and this is odd as we used to get around 10 each day without a problem, even the pigeons and doves hardly show up at the far end of the garden and i have sunflower hearts on the lawn for them.

A tough one .......

[Adam Cheeseman]

The norm would be to site the table within easy reach of some cover for birds to get to, but not so close that a cat could launch an attack from the same cover. Once in there they stand a better chance of surviving a Sprawk attack. Sprawks are only successful about 1 in 19 of their hunts.

Cheers,

Adam

[2dogs2000]

You could also get bird silhouettes to stick on your windows from RSPB. I was getting a lot of bird strikes on my windows, but I have had none since using the silhouettes.

[boogle]

hi, got to agree with both of the above, i would be inclined to move the tables back closer to the house but also use the silhouettes to stop the birds flying into the glass...scatter food on the lawn as well close to the house and let nature do the rest....garden birds will alert each other if a raport is around
..good luck hope this helps !!!!

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

Ive put a sign up at the end of the garden saying "No sparrowhawks beyond this point, try next doors", i`ll let you know how i get on.

[PMG]

Originally Posted by Steve_In_Cheshire

Ive put a sign up at the end of the garden saying "No sparrowhawks beyond this point, try next doors", i`ll let you know how i get on.

LOL!!!! Love it!!!