176 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



E.H.C. concluded after examining it that it was a Montagu's 

 Harrier (Bird of the Year). The fact that there was a newly 

 killed, part eaten Columba palumbus juv (the Wood Pigeon) 

 on the ground confirmed this. When W.P.C. saw the bird 

 he had a good chance of watching it as it was picking up 

 insects in a ride ; he was quite close to it and felt sure it was a 

 young Montagu's Harrier, so far as one can be sure of a 

 Harrier. (W.P.C. and E.H.C.). 

 Accipiter msus (The Sparrowhawk). 



May 9th. Having found a Sparrowhawk's feeding place 

 at Canford we decided to try to photograph the bird, so put 

 up a hiding tent and decorated it very carefully to make it 

 look as much like a rhododendron bush as possible ; this we 

 left there for a week. W.P.C.'s notes were as follows : 



" I had very faint hopes of a shot. I put up the Ross 17in. 

 Telecentric and found the exposure required was about 1-1 1th 

 of a second. The Telecentric is too heavy for the camera 

 front and required supporting to relieve the strain. I imagine 

 that so long as the birds are singing round there is no sign of a 

 sparrowhawk ; there is a wren singing vigorously. At 9.45 

 there is dead silence, broken only by an occasional doubtful 

 hiss from a robin. A woodpecker has just called in the 

 distance, but there is no sign of A. nisus anywhere close at 

 hand. 10 a.m., an Accentor modularis has just squeaked with 

 that wiry whine which they make. At 10.4 a wren was 

 singing vigorously, and a chaffinch too. At 10.30 it seemed 

 very quiet, and I took a lookout of each peephole carefully, 

 I caught sight of the sparrowhawk in another tree some 

 distance away. She was a fine old female. She made a 

 meal of a squab blackbird, but took only three minutes over 

 it and was very quiet. What made me look up in her 

 direction was the curious hollow sound of the tearing flesh. 

 She simply tore the squab in fair size pieces and bolted it 

 without ceremony, and then rubbed her bill clean on a rotten 

 branch of an oak. She went as silently as she came. How 

 long she was there I do not know, as after she went the birds 

 started singing again. 



