Posted by Nick Railton on March 16, 2007 at 11:50 AM
I had this chance meeting with this Sparrow Hawk today, it flew of into this tree just after trying to find a meal in my neighbours garden. I managed to get about 15 shots this is the best one. I think this a male sparrow hawk larger than my 1st encounter with a sparrow hawk which I think was a female.
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Thanks guys for pointing out my error, Female it is then, it was about the size of a large Collared Dove maybe bigger about 10".
Canon 30D
Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +1.4x
About 50% cropped
adjusted exposure by + 1/3rd in DPP
cropped, adjusted levels ,shadow/highlight, 40% .9 smartsharpen in PS CS2
Posted by szekiat chan on March 16, 2007 at 12:49 PM
clone out the branch and you're sorted mate!
Posted by Craig Nash on March 16, 2007 at 12:49 PM
I think you will find this is a female. The female is larger than male and the male has more red/ rufous colour on the breast. They also tend to feed on different prey. The female taking larger birds dove, pigeon, mistle thrush etc.The male takes smaller birds finches etc. They can be a nuisance round a bird table once they find them as they then visit on regular basis. However its always nice to find them if only they would find a perch with a nice clean background.
Nice record shot, Sparrowhawks never stop in my garden but just flash through as a brown blur!
This is also a female 'hawk - males are usually smaller than the females, are slate grey on the back and have the orange tinged breasts.
But female sparrowhawks are extremely variable in size, I recall a talk from the head ranger at Windsor Great Park, he had a photo of 3 dead females in a line, one was kestrel sized, one normal sized and one just smaller than a buzzard ie about 9 inches to a foot in size variation from smallest to largest. - This variation in size explains the profusion of misidentified "goshawk" sightings we get in the UK away from the well known breeding sites.
oops Craig beat me to this, sorry for the repeated id post
Posted by Nick Railton on March 17, 2007 at 7:16 PM
Hi Tim, I'm not sure if I have the Canon gear sussed yet? I must say I thought the sparrow hawk pic was not going to bit up to much, I was a long way from the bird and was not sure if I would get it in focus because of all the branches etc, I took a load of pics today at Grafham Water so hope to put some up tomorrow, mainly Wind Surfers, Ducks, Geese and a Pied Wagtail.
Discussion
5 replies------
Thanks guys for pointing out my error, Female it is then, it was about the size of a large Collared Dove maybe bigger about 10".
Canon 30D
Canon EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +1.4x
About 50% cropped
adjusted exposure by + 1/3rd in DPP
cropped, adjusted levels ,shadow/highlight, 40% .9 smartsharpen in PS CS2
This is also a female 'hawk - males are usually smaller than the females, are slate grey on the back and have the orange tinged breasts.
But female sparrowhawks are extremely variable in size, I recall a talk from the head ranger at Windsor Great Park, he had a photo of 3 dead females in a line, one was kestrel sized, one normal sized and one just smaller than a buzzard ie about 9 inches to a foot in size variation from smallest to largest. - This variation in size explains the profusion of misidentified "goshawk" sightings we get in the UK away from the well known breeding sites.
oops Craig beat me to this, sorry for the repeated id post
Tim
Cheers
Nick