A brief encounter with the cemetery Sparrowhawks

Male Sparrowhawk, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

The cemetery is at its leafy overgrown best as I walk up the hill through a green tunnel and past the terraced rows of Victorian gravestones many now draped in Ivy and surrounded by Bramble patches. The leafy green is now losing its early spring freshness and even the Ox eye Daisy's look a little tired today.

An insistent screeching call alerts me to the presence of the local Sparrowhawks and I pause to take stock. I've seen them in this corner of the cemetery before and have often suspected that they have a nest here. Excitedly my mind quickly goes over the possibility that they have nested here and if I am hearing recently fledged young soliciting food from their parents.

I stand still and scan the large Copper Beech and Oak in front of me. Then there she is a female Sparrowhawk flies out of the Oak and out of sight and yet still the insistent screeching call continues. I squint through the gently swaying branches and there he is a male Sparrowhawk standing on a thick horizontal oak bough and clasping a unidentifiable prey item in his talons, presumably to entice the female to come and see him should his calling not be enough to do the job.

A Jay squawks from a near by tree and then its pink purple shape flies across the ride pursued by the female Sparrowhawk, who once again disappears from view into the dense green summer canopy and still the male bird sits on his bough, grasping his prey item calling to her.

I'm a little amazed by this, normally if you can see a Sparrowhawk it means they have already seen you and are flying away from you, so to get prolonged and close views like this is a rare treat.

I take some pictures and video of the male with my little compact camera, a Panasonic Lumix TZ30 about the size of a fag packet and a very handy little toy to keep in my pocket for occasions like this. The female briefly joins the male on the bough. And then its over and the spell is broken by another lunchtime walker passing under the male sparrowhawks Oak tree, causing the hawk to fall silent and disappear from view. 

Woodpecker and Sparrowhawk encounter

Autumn leaves going from gold to brown

The single note call of a Great Spotted Woodpecker cuts through the quiet of the winter woodland, I don't bother to lift my binoculars but scan for the bird with my eyes. As I do so I pick up on a fast moving form sliding with barely a wing beat through the tangle of bare branches in the canopy, its broad winged arrow coalesces before me as a monochrome winter silhouette, its small size and shape give it away as a male Sparrowhawk that, no sooner have I identified it, than it has gone, down the slope weaving its way through the tops of the trees. The Woodpecker stops calling and the wood falls quiet again.

Lunchtime Sparrowhawk

Heavily cropped shot of Sparrowhawk, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich



Original uncropped Sparrowhawk shot, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

 Whilst I have only ever seen one Buzzard and one Kestrel during all my lunchtime walks around the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich, I reasonably frequently catch a glimpse of a Sparrowhawk.

This bird gave its presence away by constantly calling presumably to its mate for food and was [for a Sparrowhawk] remarkably tolerant of my presence. I think it may be a young bird but will have a bit of a look in some books and update this blog if that isn't the case. I've now had a look in my 'Collins Guide' and have change my mind the grey back colour [as opposed to brown in a Juvenile which should also have some white edging to its back feathers] and the uniform nature of its chest barring make me think this was a adult female.




Sparrowhawk, Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

 The pictures were taken with my Panasonic Lumix TZ30 and the top one cropped on the computer. Pretty impressive for a piece of kit that isn't much bigger than a packet of cigarettes.

Crocus awakening

The Rosary Cemetery in Norwich is a wonderful little oasis close to the centre of the city and a couple of minutes walk from my office. The cemetery falls into two parts a wild older section full of mature trees and Victorian tombstones on which the inscriptions read like CV's fro the afterlife and a newer section which is still in use. Cross a road from the new part of the cemetery and you are in Lion Wood. Visit the excellent http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/rosary_cemetery.htm for more information on the Cemetery.

Its a great place for a 'birds without binoculars' lunchtime walk or potter with the camera. See http://flickr.com/photos/bullofthebog/ to see a small of selection of photos taken here over the last couple of years.

Today was my first visit for a couple of weeks and it was good to see the changing season in the shape of the naturalised crocuses that have spread, seemingly randomly through the cemetery, no boring municipal lines here. For the next month these wild crocuses will be an absolute joy. Not to be outdone the small pond was full of frogs with at least ten 'pairs' of copulating amphibians. A large female Sparrowhawk was my first over the Cemetery this year.

Death down at the Staithe

Beautiful early spring morning. Had a short walk around Holkham Park, no Lesser peckers, but lots of noise from the resident Jackdaws and the wonderful almost owl like cooing of the local Stock Doves.

Stopped off at Deepdale Cafe http://www.deepdalecafe.co.uk/ for a takeaway sausage sandwich and coffee, as ever excellent food, great value for money and friendly service. I took my meal down to the Staithe, what with the tide still being out and a number of folk walking around enjoying the sunshine it was quiet for waders and wildfowl. However the calm was broken by a Sparrowhawk taking out one of the Redshanks. Only managed some distant shots of the BOP as it subdued its prey. I've sharpened and cropped one of these and posted it here.