The Sparrow Hawk was very active this morning in his Tooting Bec Common woodland niche, as I entered the wood he was on quite a low branch, stretching his wings before flying into an ivy clad tree, grabbing a small twig and flying up to a very much higher beech tree, where I guess he must be building a nest;he stayed there for a while perching high and looking down at the wood, his wood, then flew to another tree, then another, out of sight. I started chatting to a woman with two dogs about birds and which birds should be voted for as Britains' most loved, as we spoke the sparrow hawk flew very close, gliding right over our
heads, so I got a good view of his slim, striped black and white undercarriage,, quite short,
strong wings, yellow talons, elegant, effortless glidng flight, the woman kept on talking as if it was nothing. Then the hawk rustled around in the ivy for a short while and flew off again, shortly after that another woman with upper class dogs asked me what I was looking for, when I told her about the sparrow hawk she said he'd been nesting there for years and years, though how she knew it was the same hawk was not clear,she said she heard female tawny owls calling to each other at dusk in the wood, I said it was great the birds of prey had recovered their numbers, and that birds of prey had historically been very badly treated by the grouse hunting fraternity, she said, "All the people I know who go shooting are crazy for conservation". I didn't say, 'try telling that to the grouse' but thought it..Tooting and it's Wandsworth/Clapham environs are a world apart from Streatham, I don't think many Streathamites are posh enough to go on shoots or know shooters (unless they are in a gang) though that's probably changing, but she was nice enough...
No comments:
Post a Comment