A sparrowhawk and an oppertunist magpie.

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

I was looking out of the window and spotted one of the sparrowhawks that visits our garden on top of a hedgerow at the end of the garden, the females are hard to miss with that big white chest. Anyway she was getting stuck into lunch which i think was a dove judging by all the white feathers and quite big legs.

I went to get my camera to grab a quick shot as the female is usually very elusive and hard to spot, normally all you see after one of her kills is the aftermath of feathers.

As i was re-positioning the camera after taking a few shots an oppertunist arrived just above the sparrowhawk which was sqawking away, it was a magpie. After a fair while the sparrowhawk flew off, by this point my camera battery was bleeping away so i wanted to get the pics off the camera before it ran out. As i was downloading the pics the magpie dropped down from above and finished off the odds and ends which the sparrowhawk didn't fancy. They are oppertunistic cheeky beggars but entertaining all the same



(look whose lurking to the right lol

[Pete Collins]

Great series of photos, Steve.

I spotted a female Sparrowhawk in the garden at the weekend, but it was off long before I could grab my camera. One of these days I'll get a shot of a Sparrowhawk.

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

Originally Posted by Pete Collins

I spotted a female Sparrowhawk in the garden at the weekend, but it was off long before I could grab my camera. One of these days I'll get a shot of a Sparrowhawk.

Yeh, i found it to be exactly the same with the female sparrowhawk. You would occasionally get the odd glimpse but she would never be in the same place for long enough to get a photo. Ive only managed to capture her on camera twice in over a year. A male that comes he is easy to photo, ive even walked into the garden when he's been sat on the fence and he doesn't move most of the time.

You will get a photo of the female sooner rather than later, its just law of averages.

[rossbells]

Is it just me or is that Magpie huge?