SPARROWHAWK ACCIPITER NISUS
(L.) STALKING PREY ON FOOT
Paul Whitehead
At 0800 hrs on 10 February 2003, a fit, highly-coloured male
Sparrowhawk chanced upon a female Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla (L.)
feeding on a bird table here in Little Comberton. The Blackcap
flew into a mahonia growing against the wall of the house and the
Sparrowhawk landed on an adjacent wall-trained ivy, shortly
afterwards flying down onto a flagged area beneath the mahonia.
The Sparrowhawk proceeded to walk unhurriedly beneath the
mahonia, all the time looking upward into it, eventually
clambering up onto its low branches. This plant, a cultivated
form known as Mahonia 'Charity', has also been wall-trained, and
covers an area of approximately 9m2. The Sparrowhawk then
methodically clambered throughout the plant for about 90 seconds,
presumably attempting either to capture or flush out the
Blackcap, a matter in which it failed.
Recalling my own previously documented experiences of a
Sparrowhawk successfully taking a Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica L.
by closing its wings and tumbling vertically downward through a
flock, or of Goshawks Accipiter gentilis (L.) stalling in flight
on fanned wings to confuse flocking Collared Doves Streptopelia
decaocto (Friv.), is it that accipiters are actively becoming
more enterprising and adventurous? Or could it be equally that
accipiters, like people, have learnt to associate Blackcaps with
mahonias?
P. F. Whitehead, Moor Leys, Little Comberton, Pershore,
Worcestershire WR10 3EH
SPARROWHAWK ACCIPITER NISUS (L.) STALKING PREY ON FOOT
Paul Whitehead
At 0800 hrs on 10 February 2003, a fit, highly-coloured male
Sparrowhawk chanced upon a female Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla (L.)
feeding on a bird table here in Little Comberton. The Blackcap
flew into a mahonia growing against the wall of the house and the
Sparrowhawk landed on an adjacent wall-trained ivy, shortly
afterwards flying down onto a flagged area beneath the mahonia.
The Sparrowhawk proceeded to walk unhurriedly beneath the
mahonia, all the time looking upward into it, eventually
clambering up onto its low branches. This plant, a cultivated
form known as Mahonia 'Charity', has also been wall-trained, and
covers an area of approximately 9m2. The Sparrowhawk then
methodically clambered throughout the plant for about 90 seconds,
presumably attempting either to capture or flush out the
Blackcap, a matter in which it failed.
Recalling my own previously documented experiences of a
Sparrowhawk successfully taking a Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica L.
by closing its wings and tumbling vertically downward through a
flock, or of Goshawks Accipiter gentilis (L.) stalling in flight
on fanned wings to confuse flocking Collared Doves Streptopelia
decaocto (Friv.), is it that accipiters are actively becoming
more enterprising and adventurous? Or could it be equally that
accipiters, like people, have learnt to associate Blackcaps with
mahonias?
P. F. Whitehead, Moor Leys, Little Comberton, Pershore,
Worcestershire WR10 3EH
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