Fluffy juvenile sparrowhawk – photo taken 26062022 by Birder Jack
Two juvenile sparrowhawks –
photo taken 06072022 by Birder Jack
(Photos taken at a distance using a very long lens.)
This evening, there is activity in the nest: one juvenile is pulling at a small corpse held in its powerful yellow talons, tearing off chunks of red meat with its sharp beak and gulping them down. This one has only a little down left at the top of the beak, giving it a slightly comical appearance, but there is nothing funny about the way it is devouring its meal. I wonder what it once was – the prey differs depending on whether the male or female sparrowhawk has caught it, with the female’s larger size enabling her to take chunkier prey such as pigeons and thrushes, compared to the male’s choice of smaller birds such as finches and sparrows.
The smallest bird is on the favoured perch to one side of the nest now, looking around. He (I’m guessing) very much still resembles a nestling: plump and fluffy, his fierce sparrowhawk eye shining incongruously in his baby face.
The biggest is venturing further now; after a few days of jump-flapping in and out of the nest, she has hopped down and away this time instead, weaving from one branch to the next, and is now lost from view. Her brother watches her keenly, learning from his bigger, bolder sibling. Soon, they will have outgrown the nest that has been their home for the last few weeks – I will be glad to see them fledge fully and fly confidently into the air, but I will miss sitting on the soft bark and twigs that carpet the ground under the tall green ferns, waiting for some sparrowhawk action as the wind buffets the trees, sending the slender ones dancing and bending in the stronger gusts, leaves rustling. A million meditative, mindful miles from the chaos of ‘civilisation’.