ive looked at the pictures of the birds killed by the sparrowhawk , and quite frankly i,m dismayed by pigeon fanciers, get yourself an airgun and shoot the sparrowhaws of the top of the birds you can get a cheap chinese gun for around 50£its worth the money as you can kill the occasional stoat and rat to , if the fanciers let the birds out and go into the house or go away and leave them they deserve all they get .
when i erected my lofts at this location i had all kinds of prblems with sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons, defra , and the police , looking for illegal substances i.e poison . , defra are the lackies that act for the r.s.p.b . when a peregrine falcon is about to strike your birds , the will start zig-zagging very rapidly and strike from above sometimes at unbelievable speeds , when they take a bird ,9 out of ten times they will go down with it , that is your chance , you can either trap it or poision it if you can manage to get a hold of some ,
springer traps are an essential for a pigeon fancier , they are only ten pounds each 2 is adequate they catch all that is likely to bother you , just remember to flip back the safety catch when setting ,
i dont have any problems at the moment with the vermin at the moment as i,m on top of it .
as an ex gamekeeper ive noticed a huge decline in the bird population in my area , this has also coincided with the rise of the raptor population , so dont abandon your birds when they are out and if you are getting problems with a falcon it will be roosting withina five or six mile radious , often a ued or dissused quarry , i,ll leave the rest to your imagination , i might add i would be ashamed to post the pctures i,ve seen in pigeon basics , and whinge about birds of prey