Topic: Whoosh

[Val]

Day dreaming as usual, looking out the backdoor window yesterday evening I've never been so startled in my life. A bird of prey flew very low very fast over the garden headed for the back door...or so I thought but carried on over the garage. I was so amazed I didn't even run to the front to see what it was after, The small birds in the garden went very quiet just looking. I've never seen a bird fly that fast before, it was obviously in hunting mode, too quick for me to see what type of bird..definately a wow moment.The stillness of the garden was eerie..even the wind stopped blowing... ;D 8)

[Marianne]

It could be a sparrowhawk or a kestrel.  Both those birds of prey are fast flyers.  I do not like them as they eat other birds but that is nature ....  :(

[redimp]

I love them even though I love the little birds as well.  It is nature that is wonderful and everything serves a purpose - that is until man comes in with either sentimentality, cruelty or exploitation and the balance is upset and the whole thing goes pearshaped.

PS yes I do have pets so I am guilty of partial sentimentality

[Val]

Yes I have to switch off the feelings if I can and see it as nature...the food chain is long and needy. I do have to say that moment was one I'll not forget it was awesome.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Sounds more like a sparrowhawk. They fly low and ambush prey, while kestrels tend to fly high looking for things moving on the ground.

[redimp]

Sounds more like a sparrowhawk. They fly low and ambush prey, while kestrels tend to fly high looking for things moving on the ground.

Agree with that - meant to put it my own post but got carried away with the moment.  ;D

[selwyn-smith]

I was looking out in my garden watching loads of birds on the feeders when suddenly they all flew up in the air, and a sparrow hawk dived onto a bluetit and sat on my lawn and tore it apart and ate it. I was amazed, couldn't decided how I felt really, wonderful to see it but I sort of felt I had offered him dinner on a plate. I still feed the birds and I haven't seen it again. I should add that we live in quite a built up area.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I was once smoking a hive prior to opening it up when a kestrel dropped on something a few feet away just the other side of the hedge. I was so preoccupied with watching for it to fly up again, that I just carried on pumping the smoker bellows without realising it. The kestrel flew up and went off with something dangling, and I realised what I was doing - the bees must have been half gassed - and opened up. There was the queen,, a great fat thing, crawling about on TOP of the excluder, which is a plastic sheet with slots she's not supposed to be able to get through. There weren't any eggs up top, so I must have driven her to struggle through to escape the smoke.

[tim]

A sparrowhawk flew into our lean-to last year, & I was able to shut the door on it until the grandchildren had see it. A most intelligent looking bird - & very beautiful.

[Mrs Ava]

I absolutely adore birds of prey, which lets face it, kinda includes the lovely owls.  I love to watch them hovering looking down at goodness knows what in the fields, or diving around with such precise and perfect speed and aim.  Something took down a starling in our neighbours garden last year.  Amazing to see it happen, no nonsence!

[Emm P]

Last year, a lot of birds flew past the back of my house - a bigger bird at the front.
Suddenly, the big one dropped like a stone, then shot straight back up, and grabbed one of the other birds.
It was a Sparrow Hawk.
 :-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

I used to watch buzzards being mobbed by ravens and gulls when I was in Cornwall. One time the 'buzzard' was a goshawk, another a black kite, another time a peregrine. There are actually a lot more birds of prey around than we realise. When I was growing up in Oxford, a buzzard was a rare sight in the area. These days they're quite common in the West Midlands, and a lot of other areas as well.

[redimp]

Buzzards are now more common than Kestrels and as a result are the most common birds of prey.  However, in Lincs, we have loads of Kestrels and only a few Buzzards so I think we must buck the trend.

There are a pair of Kestrels (Kessies often pair for life) that nest somewhere near where I live.  I tend to keep a close eye on them year round.  Often see them mobbed by Rooks after a successful kill - they drop the prey and then the Rooks scavange it.  That is about the only bird behaviour that I do have ony objection to even though I no it is natural.