I thought I'd spend the afternoon watching the garden feeders to see what dropped in, but continued attacks from the SPARROWHAWK, kept all but the fleet winged GREAT and BLUE TITS away, I went out and scared off the Sprawk from it's hiding place 4 or 5 times in the space of 2 hours, eventually I gave up, a decision I felt a bit guilty and annoyed about, because the female BULLFINCH dropped in to the tray of sunflower hearts, and even as I watched it through my bins, whoosh! It was gone, clenched in the talons of the Sprawk :-(
It's particularly gutting to see a scarce garden bird get predated, in fact they are a scarce bird full stop really, so i'm back debating whats the best thing to do, to stop feeding, and let the birds ( finch's especially) take their chances out on the surrounding impoverished farmland, or continue to feed and watch the finch's get picked off :-( I suppose it's a problem ive caused really, as it's not natural for so many birds, of so many species to gather in one small place, as they do in my garden, but the fact that they do, means they have too, and thats another debate!
Anyway, here's the photo's of the unfortunate Bullfinch I took yesterday, I suppose it at least didn't die of starvation!!
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| Ex - Bullfinch |
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| Ex - Bullfinch |
Also, a photo of the GREAT TIT, these birds are normally far too quick for the Sprawk! :-)
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| Great Tit |
10 comments:
Poor Bullfinch :(
I can understand why you're thinking of stopping feeding Warren, but surely the number of birds that benefit from having your regular, reliable food source outweighs the number killed by the Sprawk?
Tough decision.....
Time to pay your subs to Songbird Survival???
Hope tomorrow is a better day for you
Cheers
Davo
That's a real shame Warren, as Sharon says tough decision, I haven't fed the birds for years due to 7 cats next door but I would like try it again sometime.
It sounds like something from Scooby Do...you can imagine the Sprawk saying to itself "ah, and I would of got away with it if it wasnt for that meddling birder!"
Hi Shaz,
Trouble is the Sprawk gets the same species most of the time - Finch's! In the wild the Sprawk would get all sorts of species, so not putting pressure on any - thats how nature works, garden feeing isn't natural :-(
Davo,
I'll not support that uneducated lot all the time i'm breathing !!
Alan,
7 Cats!! Blimey, if I was a bird I'd take my chances here, with the Sprawk!! :-)
Lovely done the picture of a female Bullfinch. I cannot get one, well, not really good one.
What a sad end to a fantastic and hard to see species. Many people go through life without even seeing one of these crackers. I suppose thats life!
A bullfinch on a feeder thats a nice one!
have a nice night tomorrow!
Saludos.
Yeah, it`s a tough call that, Warren. And only one you can answer.
Unfortunately i don`t have that problem, in that hardly anything`s coming to feed in my garden.
Hi Warren.
I think by feeding you do much more good than harm in the long run mate, but it must be tough to see such a rarely-seen species get predated. Our hawks NEVER seem to catch anything, or atleast I've never seen them catch anything - I don't know how they survive!
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