Sparrowhawks - Are they Killing Kestrals?Posted on Wednesday Dec 9 12:16:00 GMT 2009  Conservation is all about balance, a balance between species, the predator and its prey. This Sparrowhawk photographed earlier this week just as the sun came up, was finishing a pigeon kill which it had caught from our Bramley apple tree roost.
Some of the Bird guides cite the Sparrowhawk as taking small birds, in my opinion a wood pigeon is not a small bird.
I would like to hear from anyone whom has seen a Sparrowhawk take or kill a Kestral. Of all our raptors the Kestral is the only one in continual decline, the Sparrowhawk population continues to grow and the Buzzard population is simply exploding. One or both of these birds must be affecting the Kestral population.
Unless conservation groups start a strategy to achieve balance, unstoppable decline and extinction amongst some of our bird species is only a few years away. |