I’m on a day off today and was in my study booking what will be our next holiday, the Canary Islands at the end of April, when I heard a lot of noise from the garden. I went out into the garden to see what was up and the chickens were shouting their beaks off! On the other side of the garden from them were three magpies in a tree also shouting at the top of their voices. I wondered where the cat was because my first thought was that the magpies were going for the cat (they’ve done that before) and maybe the chickens were joining in for fun. Then in the shrubs between the two sets of birds there was a lot of flapping which I couldn’t really see what it was and some feathers flying into the air! Next thought was that a daytime fox had got a chicken. But my chickens are brown and these feathers were grey. More flapping in the shrubs and then out into the open comes a pigeon with a Sparrowhawk clinging onto its back. Amazing! I find myself 6 feet away and I’m staring at what I’m seeing and the Sparrowhawk is staring at me. Its golden eye with black pupil is staring at me trying to read my mind ‘Does the upright want this pigeon or can I keep it?’. I didn’t move which I guess told the Sparrowhawk I wasn’t going to go away. Eventually it let go of the pigeon and flew off.
Here are two pictures, the first I found on the internet and what’s what would have been happening in my garden if I hadn’t gone out there. The second is of the pigeon which still hasn’t flown off – I show it because its taken from the exact spot I was stood on when the Sparrowhawk was there – that’s how close I was.
I think it’s more likely that the birds alongside the M4 are kestrels. Kestrels often hover at the sides of roads and are looking for mice and voles. Sparrowhawks tend to fly lower and not to hover too much because they’re trying ‘to sneak up’ on other birds. The bigger soaring birds are very likely to be Buzzards. They used to be rare in the south of England but are now a common sight.