A New Sparrowhawk family

Hello and welcome to this week's Wildlife Matters podcast with me, Nigel Palmer.

And on this week's episode, I am so excited to bring you a story that's so personal to me, where I follow a sparrowhawk family as it grows up and follow it right throughout the season.

Also on wildlife matters investigates, we're going to be looking into why woodlands are such happy places for people and of course, for wildlife.

And we have some of your favourite features with nature news, mindful matters.

That's all coming up right now on wildlife Matters, the podcast and in this week's nature news, we're going to be looking at a breaking story from the ITV news channel about fox hunting and a series of arrests that have taken place over the last a couple of days.

So it's believed that this is the largest ever criminal investigation in the UK associated with fox hunting and focused on animal welfare.

ITV revealed that, acting on intelligence, a series of dawn raids have simultaneously taken place across the country at both kennels and homes belonging to those who use dogs for hunting.

The RSPCA, supported by the police from Kent, Norfolk, Sussex and the Thames Valley.

Six men have been arrested and questioned by police and 22 dogs seized and removed from where they had been living.

It's understood that those questioned by police are suspected to be involved in terrier.

Work for fox hunting.

The RSPCA said it was a large scale operation across several counties looking into alleged animal welfare and wildlife offences.

The dogs, who were mostly terriers but some lurchers, have now been placed into RSPCA care.

Other supporting evidence was also seized by the police and we understand that that included mobile phones.

As the raids began last Wednesday morning, hunts across the country were quickly alerted.

A WhatsApp group message circulated to those inside hunting said that the police were looking for damaged terriers and they should alert everyone in their area who could be visited.

The Kent police force said officers from a rural task force assisted RSPCA officers with a number of warrants in east Kent during the morning of Wednesday the 18th of of January, 4 men were arrested as part of an ongoing investigation.

Two from the Canterbury area, one from the Ashford area and one from the Folkestone area.

They have all been released under investigation whilst our inquiries continue.

The Norfolk police had a very similar statement, but also said that officers from Operation Randall team from Norfolk Stubborn, carried out two warrants in the Wisbridge area.

A man in his fifties from the area was arrested in connection with the investigation.

He has also since been released while they continue their inquiries, but rural crime officer PC Chris Shelley said, we will continue to work with partner agencies to tackle animal welfare and wildlife crime.

Whilst down in Berkshire, the Thames Valley Police also worked in association with the RSPCA to undertake a warrant.

At an address in Farringdon, a 31 year old man was arrested on suspicion of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

Now, that would indicate to me that that's a badger issue also.

The man has been released with no further action, but RSPCA investigation is ongoing.

Officers seized three dogs from the man and placed them into the RSPCA care.

The hunt Saboteurs association said, we're pleased that these raids have happened and it's great that the RSPCA and the police are finally clamping down.

The leaked hunting office webinars described two terrier men as the soft underbelly of hunting, as it's difficult to justify their presence if the hunts are operating within the law.

If hunts are indeed hunting within the law, as they still claim, then there is no need for terriers, or indeed terrier men.

The organization that represents hunting in Britain, the British Hound Sports association, said that they were informed about the raids and added that they were not aware of the detail of the allegations and they cannot comment any further on an open investigation.

They did add, however, that we expect the highest standards of animal welfare from.

All of our members and accredited hunts.

At all times, and would condemn any persons found to have ill treated animals.

Now, that's an interesting statement coming from a hunting organization.

We took a look at how the role of a terrier man plays in hunting.

And, you know, in a traditional fox.

Hunt, the hunt would employ one or maybe more terrier men.

Their role was to stop or block boxers and badger sets in the area where hunting was to take place, and that was to prevent foxes going to ground.

And they were also responsible for dealing.

With hunted foxes that had gone to ground.

And, of course, that's a fox's natural defenses.

So these foxes would be located using terriers and then dug out and either.

Shot, or alternatively, the fox would be.

Bolted again to be hunted by the hounds.

Terrier men would have at least one tank terrier with them, as well as equipment such as spades, net and terrier locating devices, so that terrier men can still track their animals, even underground, whilst they're looking for the foxes.

They normally follow hunts on quad bikes.

But they can be seen in four x four s, or even on foot, depending on the terrain.

Hunts now refer to terrier men as countrymen and say that they are employed to open and close gates, repair fences and to lay their trails.

Ha ha.

Terrier men were also used during mink hunts and would use terriers to locate and bolt mink that went to ground in the riverbanks.

So you can see people who are terrier men are not fine up holding citizens of the countryside.

They are of the scum of the earth, treating animals cruelly and just to facilitate the hunting of wild animals.

Really don't understand those people.

But that has been this week's wildlife matters nature news.

We're going to be looking into woodlands and why they are such happy homes for wildlife and people.

You see, woodlands are not static.

They are, in fact, dynamic living entities that grow and develop uniquely based on the habitat and species that grow or live there.

Woodlands have a direct impact on the environment, climate and the local ecosystems.

British woodlands are incredibly diverse in both flora and fauna, and they're really great for wildlife.

Every woodland is unique and individual as they adapt to the soil and local climatic conditions.

The UK has a range of woodland habitats, such as upland, lowland, ancient, wet and even rainforests, each with its own unique mosaic of habitats and a diversity of fauna and flora.

And we're going to have a look into some of those habitats and just explain them a little bit in this week's wildlife matters investigate.

So, starting with upland woodlands.

Well, uplandwood.

Oakwood, often characterized by a predominance of oak and birch in the canopy, with varying amounts of holly, rowan and hazel as the main understory species.

The range of plants found in the ground layer will vary according to the underlying soil type, but these would usually include things such as bluebells, bramble and fern.

Os grass and bracken can dominate.

Most upland oak woods contain areas of alkaline soil, often along the streams or towards the base of the slopes, where much richer plant communities can thrive, with ash and elm in the canopy, hazel in the understory and the ground plants such as dog's mercury, false broom, ransoms and enchanted nightshade, and things such as tufted hair grass being predominant.

Turning now to have a look at lowland woodlands.

Well, there's a wide range of diversity in this classification, but lowland woodlands are broad, predominantly ash field maple with oak.

They commonly have fertile soils, forming rich to acid areas that form mosaics with other tree species, such as lowland beech and yew.

In the last hundred years or so, many lowland woodlands were converted to conifer plantations or sweet chestnut and hornbeam coppices.

Ancient woodlands?

Well, ancient woodlands are the richest and most complex terrestrial habitat in the UK.

They are home to more threatened species than any other habitat.

The undisturbed soils and decaying wood have created the perfect place for communities of fungi and invertebrates.

This can be confirmed by using maps to confirm the area has had woodland tree cover for many hundreds of years.

What about wet woodlands?

Well, they occur mainly on poorly drained or seasonally wet soils.

Key species you'll find include alder, birch and willow.

Wet woodlands are often found on floodplains or a successional habitat on fens and bogs along the rivers and streams.

Wet woodlands are often found in mosaic with other key wooden habitats.

Wet woodland canopy is often dominated by willow, alder or birch.

They are increasingly rare in the UK, but a vitally important landscape and features and support a wide range of invertible and upper species.

And let's take a look at rainforests now, how many of you knew that the UK has its own rainforests?

They are predominantly in the west of the British Isles and extend through Wales, north west England and up into Scotland.

The rainforests in the UK are part of our coastal temperate rainforest bio the habitat which is globally rare and considered more threatened than even tropical rainforests.

The high humidity and low temperature range create the perfect conditions for moisture loving lichens, mosses and liverwarfs.

A british rainforest could contain over 200 different species of mosses and liverworts with well over 100 species of lipid.

The UK has an international responsibility to protect many of these species due to their scarce global distribution.

Rainforest is generally found on the western side of the UK, with examples on the west coast of Scotland, in north and west Wales, Debon, Cornwall, Cumbria and parts of northern Ireland.

But woodlands are so much more than habitats.

They are great for air quality too.

In fact, they are the lungs of the country with their potential to soak up CO2 from the atmosphere.

They are becoming even more vital to clear the pollution from our modern ways of living.

As plants breathe and exhale, they help cool the atmosphere.

Plants consume carbon dioxide, a significant greenhouse gas in the process of photosynthesis.

The reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has a direct cooling effect that is particularly valuable in urban areas and inner cities.

Woodlands play a key role in the UK's flood management plans too.

The techniques we incorporate are often referred to as natural flood management.

This is a range of natural features that seek to store or down flood waters through measures such as species and tree planting patterns.

The additions of lakes and waterways, wetland area creation, river restoration and the creation of intertidal habitats.

I hope you can see just how vital woodlands are to the well being of our countryside and everything that lives in it, and that includes us.

You see woodlands.

Woodlands are great homes for wildlife, providing safe natural habitats for foraging, burrowing, perching and hiding.

Everything our native wildlife needs to live natural, wild lives.

And of course, woodlands are great for us too.

The physical benefits of walking, cycling or even horse riding through woods have long been enjoyed.

And finally, the mental health and wellbeing aspects of being out in nature are being recognized because it brings real benefits to people's everyday lives.

This has been wildlife matters investigations into woodlands, the type of habitats and just why they are so good for our health.

And welcome back in this week's wildlife matters main feature.

Really personal story for me because it's the story of an adventure I had a couple of summers ago with the young sparrow hawk family that I watched throughout the whole summer period.

So I saw their chicks born and fledged and I wanted to share it with you.

I called the story meet the peckhams.

So let's get on with it.

Firstly, though, let's just give you a little bit of background about sparrow hawk or to be more accurate, occipita hawks.

They're short winged birds of prey.

Sparrow hawks are perfectly adapted for rapid maneuvering in woodlands, which are their main habitat.

Sparrowhawks are also known as sexually diamorphic and that means both sexes are of differing colors and sizes.

In fact, the female sparrowhawk is around 25% larger than the male.

During the mating season, the males are naturally very cautious, as they are well within the prey range of the female.

And it's not unknown for a male sparrowhawk to be predated by a female at this time.

Sparrow hawks are small, short winged raptors with long tails.

Mature adults have piercing amber coloured eyes and thin yellow legs.

Female sparrowhawks have brownish grey backs and wings, and for those who love the detail, they also have a larger white line above their eyes, whilst the smaller male is slate grey.

The males barring on his chest and under body are much finer than that of the female and to me it always looks like they're wearing stripey pyjamas.

Well, back in the early spring, I'd spotted a female sparrowhawk in my garden.

She was perched on a branch in the conifers that divide my garden from my neighbor's.

She was pruning herself, presumably having just had a meal.

Well, a couple of days later, I noticed that the usual cacophony of sound from the local sparrows had stopped and they all quickly dived into the hedges around the garden.

As I looked around, I saw a male sparrow hawk perched high in my apple tree.

He was beautifully silhouetted against the morning sky.

Now this was really exciting.

You see, I knew by the amp yellow eyes of both birds that they were both sexually mature.

Sparrowhawks will usually breed the first year after hatching and, younger than birds, have a greenish yellow, almost lion coloured eyes, whilst the mature adult eyes resemble the colour of a blood orange.

Sparrowhawks nest between May and July.

They prefer to nest in dense woodlands, although they have adapted to live in parks, small coppices and even some larger gardens.

Sparrowhawk nests are not pretty.

Theyre a random collection of sticks and small branches strung between a pair of branches, often very high up in a tree's canopy.

Sparrowhawks will lay around four to five eggs that they will incubate for 33 days.

The chicks will usually hatch between 27 and 31 days later.

The males will do all the hunting during this time and provide for the female while she is incubating the eggs.

Having located a monitor of the nest, I began to call the male David and the female Victoria, or collectively you're meeting the peccans.

The nest was in a small area of woodland on the edge of an arable field, just about two minutes walk from my house.

It was around twelve to 15 meters from the ground and the expected mix of sticks and twiggy branches.

I'd found the nest by watching where the birds were flying and finding discarded feathers on the ground below it.

Over the following month, I checked the nest daily whilst I was out taking my walks.

During the second week, I noticed Victoria was staying on the nest more and I began the incubation countdown.

At this time, David would have been spending twelve to maybe 15 hours a day away from the nest he was hunting.

To feed both Victoria and himself.

He would rely upon his speed, agility and the element of surprise to catch smaller garden birds such as sparrows and blue tits.

If you've ever observed a sparrowhawk's hunting, you will know that they use regular roots that provide them cover, such as hedges, fences or even garden sheds and buildings.

Sparrowhawks are regularly seeming gardens now.

With good populations of small birds.

A populous feeding station in a garden will be an obvious attraction to a sparrowhawk.

And that's why I was seeing David hunting in my garden.

He was arriving late in the morning on an almost daily basis.

I have a large population of sparrows that nest in the roof of my house, getting in under the ridge, in the tiles, and creating a labyrinth of tunnels and nesting chambers.

And outside I have a number of blue tits nesting.

Some are in boxes, but most are in crevices of the older trees, and even some are under the eaves of my shed.

It was easy to tell when David had arrived, though, as the cacophony of sound the sparrows make from dawn to dusk would suddenly go silent as they frantically took cover in the hedges and shrubs.

The old crabapple tree was a popular hiding place for the sparrows, until they realized that David could take them out of the outer branches or even in mid air with some ease.

That said, though only around 10% of sparrowhawk hunting flights are actually successful, David Peckham instinctively displayed a variety of hunting techniques that were typical of sparrowhawks.

The characteristic flying fast and low along the garden hedge line before flipping over the top so he can surprise his prey.

And on one occasion, he even came over the garden gate and skimmed so close to me that I could feel the breeze as he flew past my head at such high speeds.

Whilst the sparrows instinctively go silent, the blue tits often make a very specific call, and it's very clearly an alarm call, warning of the sparrow hawk's presence, no doubt.

And I have noticed that blackbirds and pigeons react to it as well.

And this appears to be a universal warning to all birds.

Due to their size, male sparrowhawks are more likely to hunt for smaller garden birds.

Despite their name, sparrows are not always the main prey of sparrow hawks.

They will take almost any small bird species.

The larger females are able to take much larger species, such as wood pigeons, doves and even magpies.

You see, sparrowhawks have long talons and typically take prey in a twisting motion with the talons, making it an instant kill.

They will then land and pluck their prey.

This looks like a frantic stomping frenzy, but it is in reality, a very efficient process, with the precision use of beat talons and toes.

Evidence of this is known as a fairy ring of discarded feathers.

And it has been known for female sparrow hawks to drown their larger prey, such as magpies and wood pigeons, although I've never actually seen this myself.

In July, I noticed that Victoria had begun to leave the nest, along with David, to go hunting, presumably to feed the whole family.

I was spending more time there watching the nest, and I had previously spotted the white, downy feathered chicks on a number of occasions, but I couldn't be sure how many there were in the nest.

With both parents now spending the majority of the day hunting, I could observe the nest for up to 3 hours a day before and after work.

Over the course of the next few days, I was able to see that the nest had four chicks.

This worked out perfectly for me, having named the parents after the Beckhams.

The chicks immediately were named after their children as Brooklyn, Harper, Romeo, and Cruz.

And, okay, I did have to look up the children's names first.

Sorry.

David and Victoria.

Over the next month, I was able to watch the chicks grow and their white down turn into brown feathers with beautiful chestnut edges.

The stripy patterns on their chests were very tightly barbed together, and their greeny yellow eyes almost clashed with their bright yellow legs.

Around the middle of August, Brooklyn and Romeo were noticeably more active and had begun to venture out of the nest on occasions without calling for their parents to feed them.

Was now making the nest very easy to locate, simply by following their sound.

A week or so later and Harper and crews had joined them, they were also out of the nest and exploring, and all four chicks were exercising their wings by flapping them.

It was fascinating to observe them developing their balance as their tail feathers began to grow, the wing beating being almost as vital as eating and sleeping in their lives.

At now, just before the August bank holiday, Brooklyn fledged the nest.

She was never far away, but had ventured into the surrounding trees.

On the bank holiday Sunday, Romeo fledged, followed about 4 hours later by Harper.

Throughout this time, David and Victoria were both regularly returning to the nest with a constant supply of food for the chicks.

I had noted that the majority were sparrows and blue tits, but I had seen two blackbirds before seeing Victoria arrive with a collared dog.

Now that did provide a very large meal for all four chicks.

Cruise was the last to pledge on the bank holiday Monday afternoon.

All the chicks were still reliant on their parents for food, and they would be for another least four to maybe six weeks.

Although today sparrowhawks are widespread, that hasn't always been the case.

You see, victorian landowners used to shoot them as trophies for displaying their taxidermy cabinets, whilst gamekeepers, yes, it's them again, shot them as pests on a very regular basis.

This reduced barrahawk population throughout the UK for many, many decades.

In fact, it was only the reduction in game shooting during the second World War that saw sparrowhawk numbers begin to recover.

You see, organochlorine pesticides could build up in the sparrowhawk's bodies through them eating mammals and birds that have been poisoned with the original DDT.

This caused the sparrowhawks eggshells to be thin, leading to crack, splitting and rendering their eggs as unviable.

Sparrowhawk populations declined primarily due to loss of habitat and food source, in addition to another rise in their persecution.

People were concerned that sparrow hawks were predating too many garden or songbirds, and they were associated particularly in the decline of the sparrow population.

It's worth noting that scientific studies have never supported this theory.

In fact, they show the correlation between songbird and sparrowholk populations remains consistent with no long term impact on the songbird population.

Population when the sparrowhawk population was decimated by DDT in the fifties and sixties, songbird populations actually remained unchanged.

Small bird species such as sparrows, ticks and finches will typically rear between five and 15 chicks per year.

The reason these species rear so many young is an evolutionary adaption because because in the absence of predators, many of these chicks simply would not survive and would die through starvation or disease.

There simply isn't enough nest holes, caterpillars or habitat to support such a huge increase in the population of these small bird species.

Scientific studies by the BTO and others over many years indicate that in order to keep songbird populations stable, only two of these chicks need to survive in our gardens.

We can help by creating a diverse habitat of trees, hedges and shrubs.

These provide both food and safe hiding and nesting places for our songbird species.

Sparrowhawks now have few natural predators in the UK, but they are predated by goshawks and pine martens, although sadly, both of these species are no longer widespread enough to cause any major population problems to sparrowhawks.

I think the most common thing I'm asked is how do you identify a sparrowhawk?

Because hawks and falcons look very similar, particularly when they're flying well for me, the species most often identified incorrectly isn't in fact another hawk or falcon, but the cuckoo.

Cuckoos have very similar colouring and are roughly the same size as a female sparrowhawk.

Cuckoos also fly in a very similar way to sparrow hawks.

They are of course non native, migrating to the UK from Africa every year to lay their eggs in the nest of others, leaving their checks to be raised by them.

Goshawks have similar markings and share the woodland habitat, but a male goshawk is around the size of a female sparrowhawk, which for reference is around 37 cm, whilst the male sparrow hawk is noticeably smaller at around 30 to 33 cm maximum.

Goshawks hunt in Denver woodland and don't usually hunt in gardens.

Kestrels share a similar outline and profile.

Kestrel is around the size of a male sparrow hawk.

Kestrels do sometimes feed in gardens, but tend to be found over grass and heathland where they hunt voles and small mammals.

The clearest indication is eye colour.

Kestrels all have dark eye.

So what about the pecuns?

Well, I'm delighted to tell you that all four chicks fledged successfully.

They've now flown away to establish their own territories, which can be several miles away.

And David, as is common, the male sparrowhawks has also flown away from the territory and he will spend the winter months alone, hunting when the weather allows.

Victoria, though, has stayed close to home and I have seen her throughout her territory on a regular basis.

In fact, she still visits the garden on on occasions, but she will not be feeding every day now.

She will rely on her fat reserves to help her through the shorter, colder winter days.

I'm delighted that David and Victoria have both survived their first year.

Once the sparrow hawk makes it to adulthood, they have a survival rate of 69% and live for an average of another four years, according to the RSPB.

In springtime, I hope that David woods will return and that he and Victoria will once again breed and successfully raise new chicks this year, and that has been the main feature of the Wildlife Matters podcast.

I hope you enjoyed me, the peckhams and our little story, and I look forward to bringing you many more similar stories in the near future.

I hope you enjoyed spending some time with the peckhams there.

Now, on the next wildlife Matters podcast, we're going to be looking into a badger story.

What badgers do in the winter time this time of year, and looking deeper in wildlife matters investigates.

We're going back to look at animals that are farmed for their fur.

Yes, that is a difficult industry to look into.

But we're going to bring you all the facts here on wildlife matters.

And, of course, we're going to have all our regular features, our nature news, our mindful moments, just spending some time with you.

Now, if you've got anything you would like us to be covering, or you think we should be, or anything you'd just like to get in touch with us about, our email address is hello@wildlifematters.org that's helloifenmatters.org.

and you can email us anytime.

And we would love to hear any of your suggestions or things that you would like to hear us covering on the Wildlife Matters podcast.

But now, but for now, that's it from me.

Nigel Palmer, Wildlife matters signing off.