The one group of birds that have gripped my imagination and my attention since I was very young are the birds of prey. Loved by many, hated by a few, persecuted by the ignorant, the stupid and the self-involved…
Two raptors put in an appearance during our safari around Druridge Bay and the Northumberland coast last week, and they’re both species that I’ll never tire of watching. As I drove our carload (Sharon and June, Francis and Julie, Jo and Kirsty) between Embleton and Warkworth, the bird that is the embodiment of power, musculature, speed and scythe-winged menace carved an arc across the sky alongside the road. Persecuted by gamekeepers, pigeon-fanciers and egg collectors, and once decimated by a population crash caused by pesticides, the sight of a Peregrine beating it’s way majestically across the landscape is one that should stir the heart of everyone, birdwatcher and non-birdwatcher alike.
The second raptor of the day was a species that, if such a thing is possible, manages to provoke even more outrage than the Peregrine. As we scanned the shadowy edges of a pool at dusk searching, unsuccessfully, for an Otter, I could see that a distant rock didn’t look quite right. With the increased magnification offered by our telescope the ‘rock’ resolved into the familiar shape of a Sparrowhawk. As well as gamekeepers, pigeon-fanciers and everyone else with a bee in their bonnets about Peregrines, the Sparrowhawk has managed to make itself even less popular by hunting in urban and suburban gardens. Bird tables attract small birds, and small birds attract Sparrowhawks…now, while I can understand the indignation of anyone who puts food out for their local birds, only to see their feeding station become a fly-through fast food outlet for a Sparrowhawk, that’s the way that nature works; you have large numbers of very small creatures (e.g. insects) which are food for a smaller number of slightly larger creatures (e.g. Blue Tits), which in turn are food for a very small number of even larger birds (e.g. Sparrowhawks). A number of organisations, acting very disingenuously with hidden self-interest, would have people believe that there’s a Sparrowhawk population of plague proportions and it’s busy decimating the tits, sparrows and finches in all of our gardens. Wouldn’t it be better if we could all appreciate the beauty, adaptation and precision of our birds of prey?