Sparrowhawk Kill!

 As regular readers will know we  have a wildlife garden, well it it got a bit wilder today, we were minding our own business sitting in the living room when there was a loud bang on the window, followed by a screaming noise and very loud Blackbird alarm calling, standing up and looking out the window revealed the answer, Sparrowhawk attack!!! At this point we were extremely worried that one of our young Blackbirds, seen being fed in the garden yesterday had bitten the dust!

Fledgling Blackbird seen in the Garden yesterday

Dad Blackbird feeding the young-uns yesterday

So it was with some relief, albeit tempered with sadness when we realised the unfortunate victim was an adult Starling, now the temptation to interfere and try to save the Starling was strong. Not in me obvs i'm all survival of the fittest etc  Margie was tempted, however I managed to restrain her and the neighbours looking over the fence from action, it was obvious that the Starling had taken a massive hit and couldn't be saved also the Sprawk is entitled to it's kill, indeed interfering  would mean not only this Starling dying but also the Sprawk having to go out and hunt again would mean another bird dying!!

The pictures below may cause upset and distress if you are of a nervous disposition do not look!

It was gruesome but interesting viewing, the Sprawk quickly plucking it's meal then eating at an impressive rate of knots, the whole time on the alert for anything that might steal it's meal, at one point  a Magpie appeared on the fence but thought better of it and flew off!!

 Has to be said our male Blackbird, seen below in action, maintained a tirade of very loud abuse directed at the predator the whole time it was in the garden, very brave, suicidal even, coming within two feet of the Sprawk either in the Hawthorn above it or on the grass in front of  the Sprawk, it was making some strange moves presumably a distraction technique, although the Sprawk largely ignored him and finished it's meal!

Very angry Blackbird, don't worry the stress hasn't turned him grey he had the distinguished grey bits before

Margie's phone pic showing how close he got!!

I don't think I could have held Margie back if the Sprawk had gone for the Blackbird!

The Sprawk carried on with it's meal, I think it maybe a 2nd calendar year male, the lack of a super and there seems to be a blue tinge to the feathers on the back and head and it seemed to have some red on the flanks? On the other hand it seemed quite large so not 100% sure opinions welcome!

Warning some of the pictures below are a bit gory proceed at own risk!

Told ya, hopefully you weren't eating your tea! Nature red in tooth and claw, or rather beak and talon, this is the reality of kill or be killed, indeed Sparrowhawks are not top of the food chain and can fall victim themselves to Peregrines, Goshawks and even other Sprawks and can have their meals stolen by Buzzards and Corvids. It took about an hour to finish it's meal and the sound of squawking Blackbird was getting on our nerves by this time, he kept it up the whole time, the Sprawk hopped up onto the birdbath had a quick clean of it's beak,  hopped up onto the fence had a quick look about and exited stage left chased off by the still squawking Blackbird!!! Presumably to digest in peace, it's crop was full to bursting!

An extraordinary hour, the garden was pretty quite for a while, but at time of writing the Sparrows have been back on the feeders and the Starlings on the fat balls, we had already pushed the feeders back into the foliage which seemed to have reduced Sprawk visits, this is the first time we have actually witnessed a kill, not much more we can do to protect the prey species, short of stopping feeding which of course will impact their ability to feed their young when they appear in a few weeks, we feed the birds to help them so will play it by ear as we don't really want to create a honey trap situation, though I think the Sprawk took the bird off the fence rather than the feeder as there is no direct attack route to the feeder, the Sparrows seem to have changed their behaviour since the Sprawks started to appear over the winter, rather than sit on the feeders as they did before they dart in from the safety of the Hawthorn, Starlings maybe not so streetwise!!

There was not much left of the Starling the head and a big pile of feathers,(I will spare you the picture!) hopefully these will be used by the Sparrows to line their nests every cloud so to speak! 

To put this in perspective since I've lived here (several years)  and we've been feeding the birds, despite several previous visits by Sparrowhawks this is the first kill I've seen, in that same period of time I've seen 4 Starlings killed by cats in the garden, which isn't natural at all!