For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to take a photograph of the above bird which now appears to have made my garden its larder, so the above is a library picture of the sparrowhawk.
Unfortunately sparrowhawks zoom in on their prey rather than fly at the speed of the usual garden birds and my camera skills are completely inadequate to cope with its speed.
Earlier I visited the RSPB website to see if there was anything I could do to deter this predator killing young greenfinches, bullfinches, thrushes, blackbirds, coal tits and a variety of other small birds but the RSPB want me to 'take the view that having a sparrowhawk visit your garden is a good thing - the presence of such a top predator indicates that the bird population in your area is doing well.'
It may be a good thing from the RSPB's view, but it's certainly distressing to see the daily piles of bird feathers around the garden. No, it's not exciting for me. One deterrent they suggest is CDs hung up in trees to scare them away and another is bamboo canes on the lawn to turn the fast approach route into an obstacle course. It would be for me too! But how about this? If I hung it from a tree branch it may work.
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