We just witnessed a sparrow hawk rip a dove to shreds in our back garden…
The dove had lived in the garden for a few years, and that all came to a rather agonising end this evening as it got ripped to pieces in the middle of the garden, having been caught in mid air by the thing you can see in the photo.
Our cat saw it happen at the same time we did, and I had the presence of mind to pick him up before he made a run for the cat flap. I’m sure the sparrow hawk would have flown away, faced with a cat - but by the same token, if it had been hungry enough to take out a dove, it might have stood it’s ground against the cat… no doubt our cat would have ended the hawk too, but would probably have been injured in the process.
At the time of writing, the cat is locked in, and the hawk is busy disecting the remains of the dove.
Don’t you just love nature sometimes?