Crow v. Sparrowhawk

A couple of days ago we watched this aerial dogfight between a crow and a sparrowhawk near Wolsingham in Weardale.

The sparrowhawk was just cruising along, minding its own business, when the crow dived down on it, missed, soared upward ...

... turned sharply and then had another go.

The hawk veered away ....

... then the crow tried again, this time from below, while ....

... the sparrowhawk looked down to keep an eye on its pursuer ....

... before diving down on the crow as it overshot its target ...

After that the crow kept a respectful distance before ....

... they both went their separate ways

Windswept and interesting ....

This sparrowhawk spent the afternoon on our garden fence, just two metres from the bird table, maybe wondering why nothing edible showed up. It can't be the smartest of raptors.

Gale force gusts of wind swept across the the garden, ruffling its feathers and, like the rest of us .....

... it kept looking up at the sky, wondering when this wintery spell is going to end.

Then a really savage gust of wind wrecked its composure completely ......

... which necessitated a lot of stretching and preening ..........

...... until it finally decided that it had had enough, and left to try its luck elsewhere.

Within five minutes the blue tits and greenfinches were back on the bird table.....

Talon contest winner...?

Now that autumn is well under way and there's frost on the roof every morning there has been an influx of small birds into the garden - various tits, goldfinches, greenfinches and the like. So this afternoon I cleaned the bird tables and feeders and bought some wild bird food, in preparation for the winter garden bird season. 

It turns out that I wasn't the only one anticipating the arrivals on the bird table.....

This beautiful visitor from higher up the food chain appeared on the garden fence.

I've never really had a good look at a sparrowhawk's talons before, but take a look at that amazing extended middle toe. 

When I was at school I had a chemistry master who had an index finger like that, which he used to single out hapless pupils that he fired questions at....

News from the Nest

Back on March 23rd. I posted some pictures of a pair of collared doves that had built a nest just a few metres from our bedroom window.  Now they have two chicks - the one on the right in the picture above has its beak facing towards the viewer, the one on the left is facing away. In the 17 days since the original post there have been three events that could have resulted in disaster for the doves. First a grey squirrel visited the hawthorn tree but didn't find the nest and eggs. Then, a week ago, we had a whole day of heavy snow and high winds. Then today a sparrowhawk perched on the top of the tree and flushed the parent bird. She escaped safely and now she's back on the nest with her chicks. Meanwhile, the local sparrowhawk is still around. We'll be glad when the nestlings have fledged - this is all getting very tense!

(This picture of our local sparrowhawk was taken at the end of December - it's the female, presumably his mate, that shows up in the garden at the moment)

Hunter in the Heart of the City

Yesterday lunchtime, when we were walking through Newcastle beside the Ouseburn, there was a sudden commotion in the trees and a crow hurtled into view, chased by this ferocious sparrowhawk. The chase lasted for about twenty seconds and at one point the pursuer managed to stretch out a talon and almost grip the crow, but it escaped and the sparrowhawk landed in the tree nearby. It's hard to see what prompted this display of aggression because there was plenty of easier prey around - there's no shortage of urban pigeons to keep this raptor well fed. 


The lower stretches of the Ouseburn, once notorious for industrial pollution and dereliction, are rapidly being cleaned up and turned into a fashionable location in the city. The old derelict Maynard's toffee works has now become a desirable suite of hi-tech offices (check out this series of pictures that shows the remarkable transformation), there's a smart riverside footpath, good pubs, live music, an urban farm, artist's studios - and constantly evolving urban wildlife habitat. In the leafier parts of the lower valley, this sparrowhawk is currently the top predator and the terror of the neigourhood.