March, 2014
Dumfries and Galloway on the Scottish borders we reached after 7 hours of travelling by tube, bus and three trains. In Castle Douglas we were met by a nice man Alan McFadyen who cheered us up with brilliant news – good Sparrowhawk activity in his site.
Sparrowhawk is a small, fast - flying and beautiful bird of prey. Once common throughout Britain, it was greatly affected by agricultural pesticides. Nowadays their numbers have risen again since these pesticides were banned.
Over the course of three days, we experienced different weather conditions – from beautiful clear skies to heavy rain. But most important we were lucky to see male and juvenile Sparrowhawks. Without a doubt the first day was the best - the male Sparrowhawk gave us a superb show.
The beginning of the day one was not very promising. Four hours of waiting without a sign of a Sparrowhawk was a bit nerve racking but finally an opportunist Sparrowhack couldn't resist a temptation to visit a feeding station which attracts an extraordinary number of small birds (Chaffinch, Great tit, Blue tit, Coal tit, Siskin, Great Spotted Woodpecker and etc.). When they suddenly scatter and stay quiet, we always expected a Sparrowhawk to swoop in to launch a surprise attack; and when it lands it's really special and exciting.
In the afternoon the male Sparrowhawk visited the site 4 times. At the beginning he seemed very busy and hungry.
It's quite a challenge to photograph a Sparrowhawk in flight as in short bursts the speed can reach up to 50 mph. Luckily we managed to make a few shots we are pretty happy with.
He attacked small birds couple of times and finally caught a great tit.
After catching a great tit the Sparrowhawk was much calmer and decided to spend some time preening...
Before he left the site, he posed us couple more times...
The juvenile came an hour later.
He didn't stay for long but was quite active...
It was an adrenaline fuelled afternoon. We simply couldn't ask for more.
The 2nd day was a mixture of sunny and cloudy weather with a frosty start.
The male Sparrowhawk visited the feeding station couple of times but never stayed for too long. Probably he was embarrassed by his short "pants".
And he looked a bit grumpy too...
Nevertheless that day he was lucky again. We saw how he caught a chaffinch and took it on a plucking post further away from our hide.
As the Sparrowhawk was not too active, we had more time to photograph other birds and red squirrels.
Most of the afternoon we've spent in the reflection pool hide.
Chaffinches were the most frequent pool visitors.
On the day three we were met by wet and miserable weather. It was still a great fun to be in the hide and enjoy short visits from small birds and red squirrels.
The highlight of the day was a really special encounter with a Great Spotted Woodpecker who was hiding under a hard woody fungus in the falling rain. We photographed the bird on numerous occasions but the rain brought a different perspective.
The Sparrowhawk clearly didn't enjoy the rainy conditions. Once he swooped in to hide under some branches and waited for the birds.
It didn't linger long and soon he made his way off.
The next day we started our long journey back to London. The time passed quickly browsing through the photos which brought back warm memories. It was a great trip to a wonderful place. We could not have asked for anything better. Thank you Alan for a brilliant experience.