Peregrine Falcon(?) seen 16.30 rapidly flying south

Tue 9 May 2023, 13:39

Looks just like the ones that were hunting along the footpath behind The Green and Hundley Way for a couple of years when the kids were at Charlbury School.

Used to sit on the branch waiting for the kids to come back home!

Mon 8 May 2023, 06:11

Male Sparrowhawk by the look of it.

Sun 7 May 2023, 22:01

Have a virtually identical photo taken last year: sparrowhawk. 

Sun 7 May 2023, 17:43

Photograph taken 22 April. Can anyone identify?

Sun 7 May 2023, 17:39

Sun 7 May 2023, 07:34

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/sparrowhawk/

A useful link which might be helpful Apparently sparrow hawks elicit more enquiries than any other bird of prey.

Sat 6 May 2023, 17:20

I've just seen a female sparrow hawk-sized bird in my tree but it didn't have that tell-tale speckled chest. Looked it up and it could have been a peregrine. They have a plain grey upper chest. I'm no expert, just a thought...

Sat 6 May 2023, 06:51

Goshawk's have round wings, they look like a Sparrowhawk on steroids & are closer to  Buzzard size.

Very rare, & normally to be found in wooded areas.

Fri 5 May 2023, 16:26

I'm going to have to look this up for photos! Do Goshawk's have broad wings or pointy curved wing like the falcon group- and more importantly what shape would the wing conform to in rapid "cruising" level flight seen from the side and a bit below? I might be mistaking the pointed, curved wings because other types might conform their feathers to such a shape if its good aerodynamically for rapid cruising to cover distance.

Thu 4 May 2023, 22:21

I don’t think anyone is doubting your Peregrine, Malcolm, the thread took an about turn half way through and started taking about a possible sighting of a Goshawk in a back garden, which seemed more likely to be a Sparrowhawk.

Thu 4 May 2023, 17:09

Definitely not a Sparrowhawk! We had them hunting in our back garden and along the alleyway for a couple of years. It definitely had Falconesque wings, but a bit hard to discern its size. It was definitely not a Kestrel - seen scores of Kestrels, males and females, in all flight modes. So if not a Peregrine, what other raptor looking about the same size as the panicking  Rooks, could it have been?

Wed 3 May 2023, 19:20

Sparrow Hawks lay out a neat circle of plucked feathers and down around the consumed victim, which is rather particularly their fashion compared to the leavings of other Raptors I’ve seen.

Tue 2 May 2023, 22:16

We have Sparow Hawks  in the garden, so most likely to be one. Wonderful birds 

Tue 2 May 2023, 20:15

I have come across piles of feathers in the garden so i expect that would be sparrow hawks to. Can a sparrow hawk snatch a dove as it is flying or does it usually get them on the ground?

Tue 2 May 2023, 14:38

Sparrow Hawks will take doves, I have seen it in my garden 3 times over the years. The last occasion the hawk(female I think) was well into plucking her dinner when a local cat shot from under the hedge and stole the dove!!. I do not know who was more surprised ,myself or the hawk. What is more annoying is that I had just stopped filming the proceedings. Interesting places gardens!!. J H

Mon 1 May 2023, 13:59

Are you sure it wasn’t a female Sparrowhawk, James? The are often to be found around here, and are very capable of taking a pigeon. According to the RSPB website, they are similar to each other in size and appearance, but Goshawks are shy birds that favour open land and are unlikely to be seen in gardens.

Mon 1 May 2023, 00:10

I had a pigeon taken in my garden on March 6th not ten feet from my back door. Quite a large bird of prey which looked to me like goshawk (very white under tail coverts)  I saw the same bird eating another pigeon on a front lawn in Hundley Way a week or so later.

Sat 29 Apr 2023, 08:41

There was a pair of Peregrine falcons reportedly nesting in the quarry some years ago. I watched one snatch a flying pigeon out of the air on the Green some years ago. Just outside your house coincidentally Malcolm.  

Sat 29 Apr 2023, 06:40

Not as rare as you may think.  They would nest in any high buildings', churches' for example.  A pair used the cement works chimney near Bletchingdon as a nest site before it was felled.  A few years back I was privileged to watch four of them in a local disused quarry.  I guess they were a family, probably raised from a nest in said quarry.  A truly magnificent sight.

Fri 28 Apr 2023, 17:10

Seems odd to have one here? Very rare. Where would it be nesting?

Fri 28 Apr 2023, 14:37

I've seen a peregrine over Charlbury a few times terrorising pigeons; amazing birds to watch.

Wed 26 Apr 2023, 21:02

Merlins and hobbies are both falcons, I believe, but as you imply they are smaller than kestrels.

Wed 26 Apr 2023, 18:59

It definitely wasn't a Sparrowhawk - we used to have a pair hunting in our garden and along the pathway running across the hedge line in the back garden. It was a "falcon" definitely - seemed to big compared to the hysterical Rooks and pair of Pigeons which panicked below it, to be a Kestrel - our smallest Falcon or is a Merlin a Falcon?

Wed 26 Apr 2023, 18:39

As a non-expert, I don't find the raptors very easy to tell apart if it isn't a kestrel or one of the red kites that have become an established presence in Charlbury over recent years and to some extent seem to have driven out the buzzards.  But I have tended to assume it is sparrowhawks rather than peregrines that we sometimes see around the garden.  There was one such raptor in our plum tree a couple of evenings ago calmly tearing chunks out of something it had caught.

Wed 26 Apr 2023, 16:42

I was made aware out of the corner of my eye whilst sitting by the living room window, of a big flurry of activity from all the rooks around the rookery at the Enstone Rd crossroads, and the Blackbirds and Robins in the garden squabbling over mealworms I'd just put out, disappearing into the hedges. When I looked up I saw a bird with a classic Falcon shape flying rapidly, quite high up, with all the raptor appearances - short head and neck, arched pointed wings, long tail etc. I'm sure at that height it was too big to be a hen Kestrel and just didn't look right for one. Looked most like the Peregrines I last saw years ago in Cornwall.

If it was a Peregrine, why would it have been flying so vigorously south over Charlbury of all places?

Spotted at 16.20h and its taken the birds here at the south end of The Green 8 minutes to start singing again ! And as I look out the first Robin has trepidatiously hopped out of the hedge for the mealworms - so must have been something scary flew over us.