A view to a kill
I had an amazing experience on the weekend when I came across a female Sparrowhawk that had just made a kill.
The view of the kill was the first time that I have had a camera to hand and its the closet that I have ever got to one of the these fierce avian predators.
In my last blog post I told the story of how I came across the high drama on the roadside of a local industrial estate. Since then I have had the opportunity to process a few more pictures which I will share with my readers today.
Sparrowhawks whilst being very elusive predators are our second most common bird of prey in the UK. The females are a lot bigger than males. Studies suggest that this is because the females specialise in bigger prey than the males. Small birds tend to be the targets of male birds whilst the females will go for much bigger prey species such as Woodpigeons ( as shown in the pictures).
The female that I watched had a very distinctive tear drop from her pupil of her left eye into her iris.
If I am ever lucky enough to see a sparrowhawk again in this area I will be looking for that.
The view of the kill was the first time that I have had a camera to hand and its the closet that I have ever got to one of the these fierce avian predators.
In my last blog post I told the story of how I came across the high drama on the roadside of a local industrial estate. Since then I have had the opportunity to process a few more pictures which I will share with my readers today.
Sparrowhawks whilst being very elusive predators are our second most common bird of prey in the UK. The females are a lot bigger than males. Studies suggest that this is because the females specialise in bigger prey than the males. Small birds tend to be the targets of male birds whilst the females will go for much bigger prey species such as Woodpigeons ( as shown in the pictures).
The female that I watched had a very distinctive tear drop from her pupil of her left eye into her iris.
If I am ever lucky enough to see a sparrowhawk again in this area I will be looking for that.
