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| The Sparrowhawk Finds My Garden a Good Hunting Ground. |
I was called on my mobile while at work today. It was my wife concerning the Dunnock chicks. I have written about them in the blog on several occasions. Today, Carole told me that the birds had fledged and were hopping around the garden. However, one had been taken by a male kestrel. (We later found out this bird of prey was a sparrowhawk. So the mistake was ours.)
It was the Fledgelings first excursion into the world after leaving the nest. Unfortunately, the cruel side of nature starts to bite straight away.
When I got home, I sat in the garden and saw the two remaining baby Dunnock chicks hopping about. I went to get my camera in the hope of getting a few photo shots of them. When I came back out in the garden, Carole said that the two fledgelings had returned to the Ceonosis Bush and everything went quiet.
As I sat down I realised why the birds were no longer chirping. On the fence sat a male Sparrowhawk. I told Carole and she confirmed it was the very raptor that had killed one of the Dunnock fledgelings in the afternoon when she phoned me at work. I managed to get a few photo shots of the bird of prey, but it shot off across the garden and attacked something in a tree over in the garden next door. It was so quick that I'm unsure whether it got a small bird or not. It flew away from the area very instantly after the attack.
The Dunnocks are learning to hide. Hopefully, they’ll live to fly off into the world.
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