Feathers
The following are feathers collected from around the sparrowhawk nest site at Craighouse. Anyone like to suggest the original owners? My guesses (based on the pictures on the Hunting page) below.
13th June
1 - black - blackbird
2-3 grey with a hint of blue - blue tit?
4-10 grey - great tit?
11-12 grey-brown with brown edge - house sparrow or dunnock
26th June
1 black - ?blackbird
2-11 grey - ?great tit
12-23 grey-brown plain - ?robin or dunnock
24-26 black with brown tips - ? quite distinctive, but no idea what they were
27-31 grey with pale trailing edge - ?great tit
32 grey with white spot - goldfinch tail feather
33 grey with white wedge - chaffinch tail feather
34 yellow-edged - goldfinch
35-40 brown - dunnock or robin
29th June
1-3 black - blackbird
4-14 grey - great tit and/or blue tit
15-25 grey-brown to brown - robin or dunnock
26-28 black with brown tip - ?
29-31 black with white at base or white wedge - chaffinch
32 yellow edge - goldfinch
3rd July
1-2 black with white base or wedge - chaffinch
3-4 black with white rectangle - goldfinch tail feathers
5 grey-brown with brown edge at tip - house sparrow or dunnock
6-10 grey - ? great tit/blue tit
11-16 brown - robin/dunnock
17-20 yellow-edged - goldfinch
21 light brown banded - sparrowhawk
and is this from the sparrowhawk?
Colin
prey feathers
a very good book is available which gives measurements of most sparrowhawk prey items.
TRACKS AND SIGNS OF THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE (HELM IDENTIFICATION GUIDES)
(ISBN: 0713635231 / 0-7136-3523-1 )
i particuarly liked comparing prey items from nest to nest.
in one area we had prey items such as wheatear, meadow pipit, swallow, and lark. birds of open country. in another area we had blue tit, great tit, robin, woodpecker, etc, birds associated with woodland. brilliant find.
plucked feathers.
there is a very good book available which has most prey items one would expect to find at a sparrowhawk plucking post.
Tracks & Signs of the Birds of Britain and Europe
(ISBN: 0747002010 / 0-7470-0201-0 )
Brown, Roy.
in my experience each nest site has differing prey items in relation to the habitat surrounding the nesting area.
at one area we found feathrs from prey such as wheatear, meadow pipiit, swallow and lark. all open ground birds. at another we found mainly, blue tit, great tit, sparrow, and woodpecker.
birds associated with woodland.
it really is a fascinating thing to study the prey of these amazing birds.
Feathers
Colin,
I think you have most of these feathers correctly identified! There seems to be uncertainty with dunock and robin feathers. So far I have not identified dunnock in my sample so im unsure myself. It would be good to get a carcass of dunnock so that we can prepare a ref. collection. Have you had any interest from your students in carrying out a SH diet analysis. We have lots of pluckings labelled and dated to sites?
I think this is a Sparrowhawk pellet. They are smaller than an owl pellet ( 25 to 35mm long x 10 to 18mm diameter), grey in colour with no bones obvious. SHs can digest bones not like owls.
Visited craighouse today and did not pick up any fresh signs of occupation. It was wet and windy though.
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