Open Chest surgery
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Just seen this an hour ago in the back garden. I inadvertantly disturbed the bird shortly after its kill...it flew off so I nipped out and moved the pigeon away from cover under the trees back to where it had been attacked on the grass. Spent a good hour and a half keeping watch with binoculars and camera waiting for sparrowhawk to return to its meal.
Went away for short while and upon my return noticed the carcass was missing...the hawk had dragged it 20' further away back under the trees where it was nice and gloomy but rubbish light for pictures! Taken through dirty window.
Times like this I wish I'd got a Da 300 f4 for 150-450.
Went away for short while and upon my return noticed the carcass was missing...the hawk had dragged it 20' further away back under the trees where it was nice and gloomy but rubbish light for pictures! Taken through dirty window.
Times like this I wish I'd got a Da 300 f4 for 150-450.
21/10/2017 - 18:411stEverPentax
CategoryWildlife / Nature
LensN/A
ISO3200
Focal Length300mm
Views/Likes33/0
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Posted 23/10/2017 - 21:58
Thanks Taffy...that was a 50% crop as well on the Tamron 70-300...it really was gloomy and i couldn't go outside as it would have spooked the hawk...just wish i'd seen it
retrieve the carcass as it was much closer and out in the open...would have been a much better shot.
Second time in a few years that ive managed to catch this happening...unfortunately it means that the wild bird population in our garden is just a fraction of what it used to be a few years ago and the wood pigeons in the tall trees at back of garden have all but disappeared...down from 20-25 every day to less than a handful.
Still, poor hawk has got to eat I guess.
retrieve the carcass as it was much closer and out in the open...would have been a much better shot.
Second time in a few years that ive managed to catch this happening...unfortunately it means that the wild bird population in our garden is just a fraction of what it used to be a few years ago and the wood pigeons in the tall trees at back of garden have all but disappeared...down from 20-25 every day to less than a handful.
Still, poor hawk has got to eat I guess.
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Posted 24/10/2017 - 15:32
1stEverPentax wrote:
... Still, poor hawk has got to eat I guess.
... Still, poor hawk has got to eat I guess.
Yes, I console myself with that thought when one of our garden birds suddenly vanishes. The hawk will also have chicks to feed in the early part of the year.
Very occasionally a sparrowhawk will take one of our birds. We had a pair of half-tame robins earlier this year. They both disappeared within days of each other. They may have been taken by the hawk, or by one of the predatory cats who hunt in our garden. They had raised two young by the time they disappeared, and I took a photo of one of the surviving youngsters when it was moulting from juvenile to adult robin plumage:
my flickr image
This survivor is still around and has now begun to pair up with a new robin.
Martin
A few of my photographs in flickr.
Lizars 1910 "Challenge" quarter-plate camera; and some more recent stuff.
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OldTaffy
12 yearsMember
South Cambridgeshire
A few of my photographs in flickr.
Lizars 1910 "Challenge" quarter-plate camera; and some more recent stuff.