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Country Matters 11th January 2003
I am writing this sitting in the sun at the end of a week of very cold dry weather.Our Little Owl has been sitting all afternoon with eyes closed in the Leylandii warming itself in the sun. One would think it was having an easy life but the freezing conditions would have made finding earthworms, its main source of winter food, impossible. It is mainly a nocturnal feeder catching worms as they come to the surface at night. Shining a torch around the arable fields often disturbs this small owl, which then flies off. Unable to find worms or amphibians at this time of year it depends on insects and small birds for food. It is difficult to believe that a Little Owl could find enough insects to survive, as it is not a skilled bird catcher like the Sparrow Hawk especially of wary adult birds in winter.
Keith Rawlings and his family were sitting down to their Christmas dinner and they had a view of a Sparrow Hawk outside their patio window feasting on a Woodpigeon.
The Hawk eventually flew off with the remains of the pigeon to finish its Christmas meal in privacy away from the spectating Rawlings family. I have not seen Sparrow Hawks take Woodpigeons very often as the pigeon must be a lot heavier than they are, but they still manage to eat most of the pigeon just leaving a mass of feathers and the clean-picked leg bones. In our own garden Woodpigeons and a Sparrow Hawk will often sit on the same tree branch but I have photographs to show that the pigeon is probably chancing its luck with a hungry hawk.
Collared Doves and smaller birds never take that chance. All our bird feeders are as close as possible to trees or shrubs so feeding birds have a chance to escape. Even so a notched post where we feed will often have uneaten food left on the side furthest away from cover. This shows the absolute fear birds have of this agile hunter. When the hawk is about the garden goes quiet and the smaller birds disappear from sight even when they are desperately feeding in winter.
The Blackbird is the first bird to become active in the morning well before sunrise and the Sparrow Hawk starts hunting at the same time. It needs to make an early kill so it can roost and conserve energy for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for our blackbirds they seem to present easy targets, not helped by the fact that I feed them about this time during the winter. Often I see the Hawk flying at considerable speed round the garden in this half-light. I am sure they visit most gardens that feed birds in the village but are rarely seen as they probably only spend a second or two in any one unless they find a victim. Then all you will find is a small puff of feathers. If the bird is small it will be carried to a favourite plucking post where it will be eaten.
Wrens must be another bird that find it difficult to survive the cold as they have such a small body mass. On the farm they have found a way into the duck sheds to roost and they also spend part of the day feeding there as well. There must be some very small insects in the sheds that they feed on. When wrens roost in winter they often huddle together in what I call ‘communal bundles’ to keep each other warm. We often had such a roosting group in the ridge of the greenhouse. I once read of over 60 wrens in such a roost. The sun is disappearing with a lovely red sunset; I hope the shepherds are right about tomorrow’s weather.
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