It is one of life’s greatest pleasures to sit and watch birds at the garden feeders. A whole host of small birds visit daily and it is wonderful to see the occasional rarer visitor like the spotted woodpecker. However, we have been increasingly seeing a sparrowhawk, who has developed terrific skills at flying round corners or dropping suddenly onto its prey – and whoosh…..another little bird has become a meal for the larger bird. And this constitutes a moral problem. The beautiful, but lethal bird of prey uses our garden as a fruitful hunting ground and has adapted its techniques to make it especially successful. What to do? I sometimes wonder how long it will take before the little birds are sorely depleted in number; and yet I know, realistically, that the hawk has to have its daily sustenance.
Life gets very difficult, even in Dalamory.