Catch 22

Just before Christmas this little chap - a male Sparrowhawk - started rushing through the garden, causing chaos and fear amongst the other garden birds. You can tell that this is a male as he is much smaller than the female and has quite a rich rufous coloured barring on his breast, whereas the female has a much greyer colour to the barring.

To begin with I only saw him occasionally, perhaps once every three days or so. But then he got lucky and managed to catch himself a blue tit, which he plucked and ate while sitting in the same little apple tree as in this picture. Now, he reckons our garden is a good bet for a scoff, so he is visiting us two or three times a day!! (I suspect he goes around all the bird tables in the village!)

A Sparrowhawk - such an amazing hunter!

Now here is the dilemma. I feed my garden birds from November until at least the end of April - even longer if it is a late spring. By mid-winter, I have built up plenty of regular visitors, covering a wide array of species, which in turn of course, attracts my "little Exocet missile friend!"

People often say to me "we have a bloody Sparrowhawk taking birds from our garden - what can we do about it?" My reply usually follows the lines of "well, firstly enjoy him or her coming to your garden as they are stunning birds!" This does not always endear me to people, as they are quite understandably fairly protective of "their" lovely little garden birds!

So, I go on to suggest that they feed the birds near to "escape cover" in the form of a thick hedge, bush or tree, so that when some bird raises an alarm call, they can all dash for cover! I say, "when a bird raises an alarm call", because most attempts by Sparrowhawks to catch their next meal, are thwarted by a shout of "danger". Most small birds will react to any other species alarm call, not just their own species.
 
This brings me to the safety in numbers policy. If I have twenty birds feeding in the garden at any given time - that is forty eyes looking out for danger. If I am a bird feeding on my own, I have just the two eyes and these also need to look for food at the same time! So, this same scenario is why many species gather together in flocks over-winter, as a predator avoidance policy.

Therefore, by feeding birds, I am attracting lots of them to my garden, which in turn attracts regular visits from the Sparrowhawk. But are they safer in my Michelin star restaurant garden, or in another "non-fed" garden elsewhere in the village? You, like the birds, will have to decide!