It's his gig
A fantastic bird-spot yesterday afternoon: the fierce and majestic Sparrowhawk. I glanced out of the kitchen window and saw it, skulking, head down, on a fence post, eyeing up next door's garden. I wasn't 100% sure what it was at first - not being a hardened birder-from-birth like my friend and birding mentor Dave Keech - but I noted its slate-grey body, lighter underparts and hawkish beak. When it took off, its wingspan was impressive. I leapt on my bird books for identification and there it was. (I emailed Dave and he confirmed it. We are like Caine and the all-wise Master Po off of Kung Fu in the 70s.)More details on this gorgeous killer of smaller birds (hey - it's his gig) at the RSPB website. I've seen one once before, but not in the town.
By the way, I prefer to illustrate with exquisite RSPB drawings, as if I borrowed a photo from Google Images of a Sparrowhawk your immediate assumption would be that I had photographed it, when in fact, I couldn't even get to my binoculars quick enough to give my Sparrowhawk a proper look, let alone a camera. And tripod.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:31 AM
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10 Comments:
Well done! Very striking orange eyes it has. Very surprised you spotted something a bit unusual in urban London.
Oh. So you mean you didn't draw the picture yourself then?
:-(
This species is definitely increasing in numbers. I live on the south west edge of London and regularly see one - the silent assasin I call it. I watched it devour a greenfinch on the bough of our apple tree last yr.
AJ
AC: they are impressive and quite distictive with their stubbier wings for flying through trees and that.
also before everyone gets a down on Sparrowhawks for eating small birds let's remember that more. Sparrowhawks means that there must be more small birds so it's good news all round (except for the smaller birds that get eat of course!)
I saw a heron being mobbed by some crows this morning.
You may be heartened to know that I have seen and photographed kestrels, sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons in central London. As in Oxford Street central London! The pregrines nest on Tate Modern sometimes, but the others clearly feel at home in the city too.
Anna
A good spot. Used to see plenty of these buggers floating about when I lived in the Lincolnshire Fens... majestic beasts, they are.
Great tits, too.
Actually, to be fair, Andrew had already identified the sparrowhawk he just needed to trust his wisdom. In fact, all I said to him was:
"Put down the field guide, Grasshopper, and follow the words of your heart. Then, this bird will be known to you"
Oooh, you lucky bugger, that's gorgeous. We have a pair of stunning Jays who regularly pop in to my garden, and saw a proper full on black and white woodpecker checking out next door's tree once but that's about as exotic asa it gets in Streatham.
I tell a lie, we've got a bunch of green parakeets growing in number so rapidly, I can't help but think that there should be some sort of culling. They must be taking food that UK bird species should be eating? British seeds for British birds! Get those undercutting bloody parakeets off our land!
Hey, Zoonie - careful with your loose talk of "some sort of culling"! It's not the parakeet's fault that it has thrived in southern England and elsewhere. They make hell of a racket too - I used to live in Surrey, where they have really done well - but hey, it's their gig.
I arrived in Northampton on Saturday lunchtime shortly after reading this blog, and what did I see in the park in St. James but a Sparrowhawk! Great gig from Glissando at the Labour Club that eve too...
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