Wednesday 13th July saw a very unexpected visitor to our house.
A female Sparrowhawk decided to chase a terrified juvenile Starling into our kitchen, and whilst the Starling cowered out of sight behind a knife block, the Sparrowhawk sat on the windowsill looking puzzled as to where her lunch had gone and why she couldn’t get out!
As she was sat calmly facing away from me I decided to catch hold of her gently from behind, preventing her hurting herself flying around and also giving me the opportunity to ring her.
The female bird was aged as a 5 (born the previous calendar year), she was in active wing and tail moult, clearly showing 2 generations of feathers, with the paler brown worn feathers being the remaining juvenile ones. The bird’s iris was yellow, but not as deep yellow as that of a bird older than a 2nd calendar year.
The bird was weighed and her wing measured, weight-271grams, wing 224mm.
The Starling lived to see another day and the Sparrowhawk was released with a shiny new ring!
