Bird enthusiasts

It's always that way round with the crow chasing the raptor,I live in a Red Kite area and you see kites daily almost always being harrassed by crows.

possibly not hungry?

crows tend to mob passing birds of prey, sometimes it ends badly for one or other
so probably not worth effort unless required ?

Charlotte Church for me
tar

A friend of mine got a great series of pictures on Friday of a buzzard/crow/red kite (one of each!) coming together!

With a cold winter in prospect we might see the Fieldfairs again Saddo .

Some years ago I had a Red-Legged Partridge in the garden, never seen one before or since.

Aye, I've only seen them once, a fine sight in numbers. Thanks for replies about the bold crow, much bigger than the female hawk but fending her off single handed.

that was Adam Ant

A few years ago I fished the river trent at sawley (Near East mids airport) watched a crow land on the far bank, two kingfishers appear and went crazy (guess a nest the the far bank) the crow made a very quick getaway

A Sparrowhawk is relatively lightly armoured with a steak knife beak. The crow has a massive machete beak by comparison.

Although you do get one on one Crow on Raptor "coming togethers", most of the multiple harrying will be either Rooks or Jackdaws.

"Tha't Rook's a Crow, They Crows is Rooks".

It makes no sense to fight if it leaves you injured, another example is a fox wont attack
a cat that isnt very young/old.

Crows are suffering a decline in some parts ,possibly due imo to early nesting and getting caught by late cold wet spring weather just when chicks have hatched ,sparrows have also suffered a widespread decline but it’s not clear at all why.Even the once abundant starling is struggling .Surprised your siding with crow over sparrow hawk  ,the crow is far from humble ,I admire them but if I had to choose it would be hawks over corvines every time .Crows like many species are an opportunistic pest species imo ,rubbish rakers ,thief’s ,mob handed Liberty taking diseased carrion feeders but never the less intelligent birds but a hawk is something of awe imo ,speed and agility with highly tuned creation .

Yes, it's tremendous fun watching a feeding blackbird explode in front of your eyes every few days

We have plenty of Crows and Sparrows . No shortage here but there are fewer Hawks .

You can have my fecker when I get it, I've got within a couple of inches from it twice.

I agree with breadnbutter!   The Sparrowhawk is a wondrous bird.  Just behind all the falcons in my list of all time favourites.

only bird I see round here is the Chukhar Partridge.

Stuffed ones or real, Kenny?  An alien species, allied to the Red Legged version. Shooting season 1st Sept to 1st Feb - should be all the year round!!   Good eating mind. No point in dealing with the whole bird - skin them, strip the breasts off and pan-fry just like pigeon breast.

You miss the point.

National bird of Pakistan, I am in Bradford remember. :-)

I have to say Kenny that I did miss your point. Despite your misspelling of the name, I had not realised your post was an elementary attempt at humour. Anyway , my post stands for what it's worth. Hope you are well.

We used to see lots of magpies but now its a charm  of jackdaws

I'm not quite believing it but something much smaller than a starling has just done the same with the hawk, threatening and almost touching it. The only small birds we have are sparrows and finches, it was too small to identify as it flew back towards the house.

Well done on passing that test I set you, blackbarn, you pompous oaf. ;-) Hope you are well, I'm not so good, got COPD, as you asked. Regards.

Yellow wagtails ,didn’t even know thier was such a bird , watched them dance between bulls hoofs picking up insects on a farmers field,

And one Saturday afternoon between races I saw a huminng bird moth on my on my hanging basket,,didn’t know what it was went straight to my books.it made my day .......people Dont

some of the sparrows around our way will front up to the crows /magpies.

usually when they have young.




sparrow hawk perches on our fence, when it does, other birds will perch beside it, not too close of course,
funny to see.

we took bird table out of garden as sparrow hawk was making too many kills, now we sometimes have a pile of feathers to clear away but not so frequent.  feeders are on underside of bushes and we ground feed for blackbirds, sparrows etc.

feeders are on underside of bushes

but about 6 feet off ground

Crows always harass birds of prey when they are flying, partly to confuse them and partly to warn other birds. As far as birds being close to a perched raptor (Peregrine, Sparrowhawk etc), they don't really see them as a threat unless they fly.

my sparrow hawk, but uploading photo has seen it rotated by betfair

Most wagtails with yellow on their undersides are grey wagtails. Yellow wagtails are a rarer, summer migrant.

I do agree that partridge breasts are beautiful, especially pan-fried, but I do always roast a brace of whole partridge at Christmas. Then they're ready to scoff cold on the 26th and 27th with the fire blazing and the racing on the box.

It's a disgusting and uncivilized sight, tearing the bird apart with your hands and teeth, but if you live on your own, with no one to nag you, it's one of the joys of the season.

Carrion Crow or Hooded Crow ?

cheers screaming

or darren even, ...