Warning – for squeamish visitors some gory photos below …
I am sure a good number of readers get Sparrowhawk’s visit their garden to pinch the odd finch feeding in their gardens and we here in Grantham are no different.
This morning on a gloomy wet day I spotted from our kitchen window one beginning to feed in a tree at the bottom of the garden, I took a shot through the double glazing of our side porch to record this and after a brief view through the bins also confirmed its Sunday lunch was an unfortunate Goldfinch.
The bird was very engaged with its own feeding activity so I decided to venture out into the rain to see if a closer shot could be obtained, I hid behind my garden shed and snapped away, the image below being the best from this viewpoint.
The Sprawk looked at me a couple of times and carried on feeding so I gathered this may have well been its first catch in a while as it was clearly more interested in the Goldfinch than me! So I moved closer and closer and still no reaction at all to me from the bird.
I ended up about 10 feet away and watched as it carried on feeding totally unabashed with my presence and managed a few pics fighting the unclear view through the tree and the poor light too.
As the bird was not worried about me and I was getting a lot of dark images I thought I would fetch my flashgun and see if I could get a photo using this to battle the light – this bit of kit is not something I use when photographing birds but managed this one below.
The Sparrowhawk continued to feed totally ignoring me and i then left it to finish its dinner in peace, about 30 minutes later after much beak wiping on the branches it flew off.
To be honest I am pleased it took one of the local and plentiful Goldies and not a winter visiting Lesser Redpoll, Siskin or Brambling.
lincsbirders 