We have a large and bustling population of the common garden birds active around the feeders. It's great to see 6 or more blue-tits and great tits on one fat-ball feeder!Right now there are families of Chaffinches, Tree Sparrows, Green Finches, Blue Tits and Great Tits.
Frequent other visitors include several Nuthatches, some Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and several Blackbirds and Robins. We've seen quite a few other species too, but these are the "regulars"!
One visitor is much less welcome though - every day he swoops through the garden and makes off with one of the small birds. I'm pretty sure its the same Sparrow-Hawk every day - a male. And he is getting far too good at reducing our bird population!
His technique is to fly in and perch in some open position where he can see what is going on. He sits there until the initial fright he caused has died down and the smaller birds resume feeding. Once, he sat for at least 30 minutes on the bird bath with his tail well under water! Once the small birds are back, he swoops - and off he flies with a morsel in his claws.
Should we intervene? We haven't so far, although when he decided to take a bluetit that was inside one of the cage-type feeders, it was quite upsetting to watch. Now, it's "That bloody Sparrow-Hawk's been again".
I can understand why they were shot, but the RSPB says that it is a sign of a healthy bird population!
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