As always, I had a purpose to my walk. It was to follow up on a walk we took on Sunday when we noticed, in the middle of a pine plantation, that not a single bird was singing. Normally, we would have expected to hear blue and coal tits, chaffinches, a blackbird or two, but.... nothing, not until our walk was nearly at an end, when I spotted a lone goldcrest, sadly not for long enough for a photo.
It's not until one approaches the houses that birds become evident, drawn by the food people are putting out for them, but it's a sad world if, increasingly, our small creatures have to rely on us to survive.
We are frequented by sparrowhawks which have learned of the increased density of small birds around our feeders. The agility and speed of their flight through the open tree branches and around our house is breath-taking and inspires admiration; though I wish they would eat peanuts instead.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, a peanut-eating sparrowhawk loses its excitement, like, who would travel across continents to see toothless lions munching grass on the Serengeti plains?
DeleteWe live on the edge of a small town and are also being visited, very regularly, by a Sparrowhawk. Pleased to say he is ignoring small birds, but meantime is decimating the local Wood Pigeon community. One of our fence panels now doubles as his plucking post!
ReplyDeleteHi Peter - Good to hear from you! I once saw a sparrowhawk killing a wood pigeon. It had brought its prey down by the side of a road and proceeded to murder it despite passing traffic and pedestrians. I stopped to watch it; everyone else seemed to treat it as quite normal. Jon
DeleteThis one has no shame. Poor old Wood Pigeon flew down onto our summerhouse roof and as his toes touched a cloud of feathers rose immediately followed by the assassin making off with his prey, leaving Muggins to clear the mess!
ReplyDelete