Yellow feet yellow beak grey spotted front - Raptor?

Mon 25 Sep 2023, 16:24

Or was it a Merlin....?

Mon 25 Sep 2023, 15:17

Hobbies are quite small, aren't they? The "Ladies" bird as in the rhyme I forget that ends with "Kestrel for a Knave". If it was a bit bigger than a commonly found corvid - Jackdaws, Rooks etc - and ... isn't it a marshland preferring falcolnesque bird hunter with pointy wings? So the description sizing would be too big... I stand to be educated on this!

Mon 25 Sep 2023, 11:34

Could be a Hobby. I saw one over my garden a few weeks ago and was told there may be a nest in the Priory.

Fri 22 Sep 2023, 15:03

We used to have a pair of Sparrowhawks hunting in our back garden and in the twitten running behind the row of houses on the west edge of The Green, so used to the sizes of male and females. Didn't look quite right for a S. A look at spread wings would have settled matters but no such view. 

Fri 22 Sep 2023, 13:44

I suppose it could be a goshawk. 

Well illustrated on the cover of one of my favourite books: Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk. Macdonald trained a goshawk. But she does also say how rare it is for goshawks to be seen in gardens, and that most reports of goshawks are instead of sparrowhawks.

Very few goshawks reported on the Oxfordshire birding site, but lots of sparrowhawks very near here. See https://www.goingbirding.co.uk/oxon/searchbirdnews.asp ;

Lots of peregrines also reported on that site, including very near here. And an old thread also on Charlbury.info about peregrines nesting in Charlbury, includes a photo of a sparrowhawk as well: https://www.charlbury.info/forum/10363

Fri 22 Sep 2023, 11:45

Possibly a goshawk we did have a breeding pair in the enstone area a couple of years ago

Fri 22 Sep 2023, 11:11

Sparrowhawks are smaller than crows.  Could have been a buzzard, although generally of a browner hue, their colour does vary quite a bit.

Fri 22 Sep 2023, 01:08

Probably a Sparrowhawk?

Thu 21 Sep 2023, 22:13

My son may have spotted what he thinks is a Peregrine on a tree in our front garden. But it sounds a bit big because it was a bit bigger than a large crow. Any other candidates?

All the Pigeons and Corvids had disappeared and didn't reappear for some time.

If not a falcon - absolutely it was a raptor - any other candidates?