This morning I was standing by myself at the farm gate in Tre'r-Ddôl village waiting for the Aberystwyth bus. Near there - about 2 yards away - is a small, very compact holly tree. There were about 15 or 20 sparrows on the berries.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a sparrowhawk zoom down the hill into the holly tree - it looked like a juvenile as it was very brown still, but large, so if not a juvenile, a female.
As it zoomed into the tree, the sparrows already there shot out in all directions like bullets.
The sparrowhawk was diving into the tree itself: it tried to nab one, and didn't succeed; tried a second, didn't succeed, went deeper in and there was silence.
I crept round the back of the tree, and the sparrowhawk emerged with a sparrow in its talons.
Then it flew away.
What I want to know is - do sparrowhawks usually dive into the midst of trees like that? I have only seen them zoom onto prey that was on the outside branches of a tree or on the ground or fence etc.?
Jean Morgan