Sparrowhawk

[BLACK W F]

well I B this might be the case with you and your bird and you been very lucky as when i had them out in the wilds i just about lost one every time they went out  i seen the SH knock them out the batch knock them off the loft roof  attack them when down on the ground  move them out to the country side  let your birds out every day with in a month you will be so sick you will chuck it or you will have nothing left thats how bad it is and when you get rid of one theres another in its place with in a couple of days  you just do not have a clue and i hope it never happens to you as it did to me

cheers Alan

[Taylorsloft]

ba????ds

[b.massey]

Dirty b******. Shocking what a bird goes through from these pests

[Guest Owen]

You want a trap? Internet. Swedish goshawk trap. Pictures and drawings there for you. When a hawk stricks a bird. DO NOT MOVE IT. The hawk has one major weakness. They will come back to the kill. The trick is to move away quietly, let it come back, aproach it quietly and HIT IT AS HARD AS YOU CAN WITH A-RAKE-HOE- GOLFCLUB-LARGE STICK-WHAT HAVE YOU.

[alex wight]

www.thehuntinglife.com/html/sections/articles/various/larsen-trap.html

 

I built one of these, very simple to make. Not had any call of late to have it set up as the hawks have not been on show. If they were, i wouldnt hesitate in using it. And then relocate them  

[WALLACE]

I've only had a sparrowhawk in my garden once, and that was last year, it was sitting on top of one of my birds, and flew off as soon as I appeared from the loft. The pigeon had a flesh wound where it had been pierced by one of the talons. Apparently the claw has a ratchett mechanism that tightens the grip if the prey struggles, it's only way that such a light bird could keep a pigeon down on the deck.

 

Personally, that pigeon was marked-down in my mind, because it obviously hadn't been paying attention to what was going on round about it; bit of detective work discovered it had been sitting on roof ridge at the gable end when it was knocked clean off into the garden (tiles were coated in hawk urate). So the hawk came from the sky and an alert pigeon should have seen it coming.

 

She recovered but was lost in racing later that year - so I wasn't far wrong.

is this the only evidence you have to come to this conclusion ? am sure the fanciers that lost national winners or multiple prize winners would disagree. in my experience if the hen wants a kill it "will" get it. a life for a life its the only way.

 

[Guest IB]

I've only just seen the responses to my sole experience of having a sparrowhawk in my garden. I don't know where the thread has been for a month; I can only repeat that I was disappointed that the pigeon got caught. I posted at the time it happened, and that I was badly shaken by the experience. I don't want to go through that again, and I don't want my birds to either. While lofts on either side of me have been hit, I'd been lucky enough to avoid it, up till then.

 

Had the hens out today, no trouble, but saw what I've come to expect of my birds and the wild birds about here; a buzzard circling high overhead, no threat, but 3 hens on loft roof watched its every move; 3 ferals took to the sky, got above it and cleared off in opposite direction; a few starlings did the same; and when I called the hens in, they came in, no bother. The bird that got caught had been called in with the others, it didn't come in, and it was only when I went back outside to see where it and its mate were, that I saw a bird on the deck, with a big black sparrowhawk sitting on top of it. Incidently, that hen was rested till near the back end of the OB season, trained, and sent to the comeback race 82 miles, I never saw it again.

  

[Roland]

You want a trap? Internet. Swedish goshawk trap. Pictures and drawings there for you. When a hawk stricks a bird. DO NOT MOVE IT. The hawk has one major weakness. They will come back to the kill. The trick is to move away quietly, let it come back, aproach it quietly and HIT IT AS HARD AS YOU CAN WITH A-RAKE-HOE- GOLFCLUB-LARGE STICK-WHAT HAVE YOU.

 

Realism. A hawk will also cover the 'Kill' with it's wings and is often so took up with it's meal it may well not see the approaching owner. But if disturbed, it will come  back... like a stoat ALWAYS comes back for another look.