Garden Takeaway

I wished I hadn’t mentioned in recent weeks about the lack of young Sparrowhawks this year as this week we have been plagued by them. An adult male Sparrowhawk has taken up residence and in one week he has been seen to capture six finches from the garden. To make matters worse he was accompanied one day by a recently fledged juvenile female and this was also seen to catch a House Sparrow so he is teaching it very well! If it carries on at this rate the recent record numbers of small birds will have been decimated. On the 20th a young Wood Pigeon sat on the top of my car in the drive and was fed for several hours by the adults. It was a good job it was too big for the male Sparrowhawk! On Hopwood there are now plenty of Redpolls and Siskins feeding amongst the young trees with one or two pairs of Wood Pigeons still incubating eggs. This week’s photo of the male Short Eared Owl about to present prey to the female is my favourite shot of the year. Such a photo would have been near impossible before the digital era.