Sparrowhawks

Over the last few weeks it's been more birding than ringing for me due to weather conditions - it's been to wet or to windy to put the nets up. On the upside I've visited Rainham Marshes a few times and enjoyed the patch. Rainham however produced the goods on 3rd November when I found a Richard's Pipit flying over calling near the landfill site. It's my second one I've found over RM but my third for the site after twitching  Dave Mo's a few years back, sadly no image for this one, just a quick overhead view of a large pipit, long tail and a Sparrow - like call x3.

24th November

Great to be back ringing with Paulboy yesterday. Filling the feeders up regularly over the last few weeks payed off with 82 birds being processed with just with two nets up. 35 Reed Bunting is really good but for me the highlights were ringing my first Adult male Sparrowhawk and Juv female both stunning up close. Just a few images with the Iphone then it was a quick release.

 
 Male

 

  female


The male was the first bird we caught and the female later on in the session. With the female being 25% bigger than the male it was he who left his mark on my hand. A big lesson learnt but a ever lasting memory of a top Avian predator up close.