Saturday, October 12, 2019
Walking out the front door, I looked up to see a sparrowhawk flying around over the village. It headed towards Ullapool Hill, and another bird joined it. I'm not sure whether they were fighting when they came together - the smaller one looks as though it's mobbing the larger one.
There seems to be quite a size difference. A female is larger than a male, but - this much larger? Unless of course it's a merlin and a sparrowhawk. Another shot made me wonder about goshawk.....
.....but an article on the birdguides website (by Keith Vinicombe, I think) provided a reality check. Is the neck sufficiently long? Is the tail rounded or square? Is the hand really markedly narrower than the arm?
His final comment says it all: "if you are at all unsure, then the bird is probably a sparrowhawk!"
The birds parted and I lost them, then caught sight of one further off to the north, possibly over the golf course. I was lucky enough to see it suddenly go into a stoop, but couldn't manage a better shot than this.
It was quite a spectacular sight as it plummeted down; I didn't know, but apparently both sparrowhawks and goshawks employ this method of catching their prey - as does a merlin. Excitement over, I went back to my gardening.
// posted by Christine @ 2:12 PM 
