Garden empty after sparrowhawk attack

[rossy]

i think your kidding yourselves if you think a sparrowhawk wont come for a meal , if crows or gulls are around, these birds are masters , and the element of a surprise attack is their trademark, in and out in the blink of an eye, not always successful, but if they are hungry, they will be in, believe me, rossy,

[actionfinch]

I have never seen a sparrowhawk around my area wanting the birds, but thats because i dont really have the large numbers of birds most people have...It can be frustrating not seeing birds in your garden , and especially in this harsh weather...
I was frustrated at seeing 2 goldfinches on the cut down conifers of the end house when i was going out yesterday , i even see them fly towards my garden , but couldnt go back for a look , patienence i would say is the key...
My profile pic is of a S-hawk which i could have looked out for hours ( or until he flew off, mind you that was at a reserve it was like we were staring each other out).

[scarymonster]

I am not really anti sparrow hawk, I just don't enjoy watching him take my garden birds. I know he does it when I am not here as we find the plucked feathers. Let's just say we have an agreement. I will chase him off if I see him but when I am not here he can do what he likes! There is no shortage of birds in the Wye valley where I live, he won't starve.

[shelldud]

Sparrowhawks are beautiful birds but are unfortunately disliked by some supposedly bird lovers.
if you want to stop sparrowhawk visits it is really simple
dont feed the birds.

[tom00_uk]

Originally Posted by scarymonster

What kind of cover do you have in your garden? I have a sparrow hawk passing by semi regular and he does catch birds now and again here but I still have a garden full of birds. I have started to learn the signs and noises the birds make in the garden when there is danger and keep an eye out for him. He has not been back since about a week ago when I ran through the garden shouting and waving my arms at him lol. I don't expect it will keep him away though as they do appear to be quite fearless, sometimes diving into tree's when I am not that far away.

We have put some nut feeders up in a large fur type tree and all the blue tits are in there feeding. They have a maze of branches to flee into on any sign of danger. We have also attached some dead prickly follage below to slow any attempted attack from under the tree. However I do have 100's of birds in the garden so he is a little spoilt for choice. I wonder if he likes Starlings, I have a lot of those at the moment and they are very noisy and always squabbling.

why feed one species and starve another?

[alan45]

Hi i have this problem all the time with a sparrowhawk it is a regular visitor to my garden as much as i enjoy its visits it plays havoc with the small birds.the housesparrows set up lookouts for a week or so watching for it comming back till they settle back to normal.it could take 4 or 5 days. enjoy the best of both.

alan.

[Red Robin]

Some of you need to get real!

Chasing/shouting at a Sparrowhawk is interfering with Nature - Let it take its course whether with blood and claw or not. You'll be shouting at the birds next for gobbling up grasshoppers - Ask yourself where you draw the line? You eat meat don't ya?

And anyway, if you run around your garden shouting do you think you won't scare away other wildlife too. Do you think they're not watching your every move?

[scarymonster]

"You eat meat don't ya?"

No, I don't actually.

Anyway, I won't continue on this thread as I am new around here but not new to forums and the politics of them and can see where this is going.

I am now off to buy over priced bird foods from the garden centre as I can't get a bulk delivery due to the holidays and they have eaten me out of everything I had this last week.

Good day to you sir.

[~T~]

I have to agree, if you don't want birds of prey killing your garden birds then simply dont feed them. Nature is nature. I chase cats off but they are not natural predators of UK birds but any bird is welcome to feed in my garden regardless of what they eat.

Anyways I started this topic really just to find out how birds know where theres been a bird of prey around (when not all of them would have been there at the time). When one of my neighbours cats have made an appearance the birds are usually back within 15mins of it leaving. It's now almost 2 days since I spotted the sparr and I have seen maybe 10% of the birds I usually see and it's been flying visits mainly. I'm not sure if the snow melting has had anything to do with it.

[Acipiter]

There's a old saying, just because you don't see it, does not mean it nots there. sparrowhawks are fantastic birds and should be left alone to go about their business. while there are sparrowhawks around, means everything is going fine. The time to start worrying is when there are none.