Bird Table News

At Yorkshire Water’s Top Hill Low nature reserve there has been a display of Sparrowhawk’s new way of hunting.

Tophill Low Warden, Richard Hampshire said ‘ The behavour we have been observing at the reserve shows this species is no bird brain, observing and learning how its prey escapes before using this knowledge to its advantage to help it secure some very easy catches.’

98% of a sparrowhawks diet is made up of other birds.

It is believed that this new way of hunting shows sparrowhawks are highly intelligent birds and can learn the behavour of their prey and use this to give them  an advantage so they can catch more birds.

These sparrowhawks at the Nature Reserve have learned how to get other birds to knock themselves out!

They do this by forcing their prey to fly headlong into the glazed window of a feeding station!

Well I never!

Staff at this reserve have now put silhouettes of falcons on the windows.  This is to try to keep the smaller birds that are fleeing from the sparrowhawk away from the window.

Now that sort of hunting takes thought and brains.  Who would have thought it of a Sparrowhawk.

I seem to remember that on Autumnwatch  there was a sparrowhawk shown drowning a Magpie!  The sparrowhawk pushed the Magpie under the water.  Killing the magpie this way would be less dangerous to the sparrowhak.

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Take a look at this video of a sparrowhawk in our garden

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In Scotland figures show that there have been 28 confirmed cases of illegal pesticides being used and killing birds of prey, 

Also in Scotland 42 poisoned baits which have been set illegally were found.

The RSPB say that the killings remained unacceptably high (the figures were lower than previous figures)

Some  Sea Eagles nests have been examined and the contents of the nest noted  over the past two years.  This was done by Members of the Outer Hebrides Bird Group.  Remains found in nests were

• fulmars
• mountain hare
• puffin
• short eared owl
• raven
• red deer
• gannets
• fragments of lambs

 Local farmers have blamed the reintroduction of the Sea Eagle as being the cause of the loss of 200 lambs. 

In February a spokesman from the RSPB said they

‘aim to get to the root of the problem’ …..  as to why farmers have lost 200 lambs   ‘we need to know the causes of that’

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I will look and see if I can find out if the  RSPB have got to the root of the problem as to why 200 lambs  have disappeared

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A while ago I  had a comment from a lady.   She told me that in May last year  she saw  a crow pluck a blackbird off the hedge and eat the blackbird.
Before you read this – don’t let it put you off feeding birds – there is a lot of fun to be had feeding birds
I was telling a friend about the blackbird being eaten by a crow and she told me that in the car park where she works two crows were pecking a live dove to bits. She  rushed out, the crows flew away but the dove was so badly mauled it died.
The crows kept on maurauding round the car park looking for the dove they had lost.
Nature is raw and harsh.
Here in her own words is the lady’s story about the crow taking a blackbird. -

We have a breeding pair of blackbirds in our garden (or did have).

The female was wise and had learnt to flap her wings to balance herself whilst she fed on the feeder that she was not meant to fit on to.

Unfortunately, I have just witnessed a crow, pluck her out of the hedge row, and despite my efforts to scare it to drop her, the crow flew off and promptly devoured her. So yes crows do kill birds…Not so keen on crows at the moment

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No neither am I.
The crow breeds between April and June. I wonder if the crow was finding food for it’s young, or if the crow population is getting bigger.
It is sad that a blackbird dies and a crow survives.  It may be that crows that will multipy and the blackbirds reduce in number.
Here is some information

• Crows are completely black.
• They nest in trees and are solitary birds, unlike rooks who nest in colonies. 
• Crows have  a black beak. Rooks are black with a pale beak. 
• As well as eating smaller birds crows eat seeds, fruit, insects, eggs, kitchen scraps, small mammals, amphibians, snails – I could go on.

  I  myself was horrified when ages ago I watched a crow eating a blackbird.

I couldn’t describe how bad it was to watch. I did not know if it had found a dead blackbird or if it had caught a live blackbird. I think now it must have caught the blackbird when it was alive.
Crows eating birds must happen a lot. I have seen it happen, a friend has seen it happen and the lady who sent this comment has seen it happen.
Surely it must happen unseen all the time in among the hedge rows and trees.
With a predator like a crow to contend with birds certainly don’t need cats prowling about  after them .
Cats are domesticated and get fed by their owners.  Yet, cats can kill all the time, not just when they are hungry.   I have seen cats killing birds  a number of times – once when we had a stray cat move into our house

I have also had trouble with rooks and crows at the birdtable in my garden

Maybe cats and crows are two of the reasons for the decline in some birds – sparrowhawks may be another.

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While on a recent trip to Disney (Hollywood Studios) my 10 year old daughter and I were enjoying watching a sparrow feed its cute baby. However, a blackbird came down, attacked the baby and killed it right in front of us.

I told my daughter to look away, but it was too late. She was in tears and extremely upset for the rest of the evening!

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It would just see the young sparrow as an easy meal. We can’t understand this can we? I was once told it is the way of nature. In the wild things feed off other each other.

Thanks for sharing this with us. It is amazing that this happened at Disney (Hollywood Studios). When I saw a bird eating a bird I was in the middle of the countryside with no one about at all.

I suppose as long as there are birds of prey we will always get this, but it is horrible to see.

I also saw a sparrowhawk with it’s talons around a blackbird. Horrible and Amazing. Trisha

 

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Yes, I have seen a rook or a very large crow eating a blackbird. 

Last year, a male blackbird was feeding a baby blackbird a worm in my back garden.  It was such a lovely sight.  As the baby went to take the worm, the large crow or rook swooped and picked up the baby. 

I opened the kitchen door, ran and screamed wherin the baby was dropped. The garden is enclosed and the baby wasnt able to fly properly, so I put washing basket over the baby to protect it (temporarily) and placed it under a shrub.  (The wash basket had openings, for the adult bird to feed the baby through the basket). 

Unfortunately, the crow/rook attacked/killed and then flew off with the adult.  It was so sad as I loved the male adult bird.  It worked tirelessly throughout the day to feed the baby and any others that I didnt see.  I now discourage crows and rooks from visiting our garden at any time of year.

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I was lucky enough to receive this descriptive story of bird eating bird.  I used to think that it was a nice, civilised world in bird world, but it isn’t is it?

Birds eat birds without thinking anything of it.  This rook took a parent bird away from its young! 

It’s a good job there was someone around to help the young birds. And what a good idea to put a wash basket over it.

I remember how shocked I felt when I watched a rook in a hedgerow eating a dead blackbird.  It was amazing to watch.

That’s nature I suppose.  It has been going on for years, it’s just that we don’t see it very often.

Trisha

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Yes, I saw, or rather, heard a whoosh and a crash as ’something’ landed in the small apple tree near some tall, mature trees; to see.

then two or three small squeaks then nothing. Then I remembered what I actually saw, which was the pleated fan of feathers of the tail of the bird (the sparrowhawk).

The sqeaks were probably from the prey, a blackbird. It’s cruel, but nature has no conscience. 

There’s no MacDonalds out there for the hungry! It’s the survival of the fittest! A brilliant display of feathers and an event which not everyone is priviledged

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The above is a vivid description and I’d like to say thanks for sending this description of nature at work.

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Some days I see crows and blackbirds together in my garden.  There are also rooks.  There are more rooks than crows.

The crows don’t seem to take any notice of the blackbirds. Neither do the rooks.
The blackbirds don’t seem frightened of the crows.

The blackbirds, rooks and crows land on the grass together.  If something frightens them, they fly off together.
Yet, and this is the strange thing,  I have seen a crow eating a blackbird.

I have also had a lady write to me saying she saw a crow catch a live blackbird to eat.

Does anyone else have crows / rooks / blackbirds together in their garden or in a park nearby, or in a town centre.

Has anyone else seen a crow or rook eating a blackbird?

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Hi, I have just watched a Sparrowhawk kill a blackbird in our small garden in  Hertfordshire.

The other blackbirds tried to help by attacking the sparrowhawk but to no avail. This went on for about 5 mins before it flew away with the blackbird in its talons.

I received the above comment yesterday. 

I replied -

How amazing!  How amazing that other blackbirds birds tried to help this blackbird that was in trouble. 

It is a case of bird killing bird again.  It’s not all nice and friendly out there is it?

Fancy the blackbirds struggling for 5 minutes to save the blackie.  You would think they would be frightened of the sparrowhawk and hide away so the sparrowhawk would not come after them. 

There must be a friendly blackbird community out there that we aren’t aware of.  Like the poem The Darkling Thrush where it says something like – the thrush knew of something that we were not aware of.

I will take more notice of the blackbirds in my garden.  It seems to me that  because of what your blackbirds did it must mean every blackie is capable of feelings, or else they would not have risked their lives to save another life.  

If this is so then they must have feelings if their young die in the nest, or if there is a shortage of food and they go hungry.

Thanks for telling me about this.  I find it amazing.

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We sometimes forget bad and annoythings.

I put some birdfood out early this morning.

When The Husband looked out of the kitchen window there were not any birds at all  near any of the feeders.  This is very unusual.

Then he saw a large sparrowhawk sat on the garden fence.  The same garden fence that sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds etc sit on.

It’s not long since I saw a sparrowhawk try and catch a blackbird.

Life is not all cosy and nice for our garden birds.  They need our help.  Maybe putting up a thick hawthorne hedge would be a good idea.

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