Monday 26 August 2013

Swallow alert

Hello

Red Kite and Hobby are providing daily viewings over the garden these days alongside the more regular Sparrowhawk and Common Buzzard.  The few pairs of Swallows in the village are very good at alerting us whenever one of the smaller raptors are around but it is important for them to recognise the correct species of avian hunter.  Certainly there is a different tone to their warning calls when a Hobby arrives within their air-space, perhaps one of the few predators that can out-manoeuvre a Swallow, albeit that they probably lose more of their kin to the 'smash and grab' tactics of the Sparrowhawk.  With both Hobby and Sparrowhawk feeding large young locally they are under pressure to hunt more regularly thus their visits to and around the garden are probably now at their most frequent and the Swallows probably at their most anxious!

A visit to Pitsford Res this evening produced a Hobby, 2 Greenshanks and 4 Little Egrets.

Regards

E & N

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