Knocked off their perch

At least this Goldfinch lived to fly again, unlike the collared dove which became  the victim of the Sparrowhawk right at the end of my hour of recording birds for The Big Garden Birdwatch.  I've put a photo in the extra, but it's so poor it's really a record for me, just to remind me that I saw it happen. (The light was very bad, snow was coming down and it all happened in the shadiest part of the garden.)  I didn't actually see the event, but Ann did, she says it dropped like a stone straight onto the back of the dove and then it held it there until it stopped struggling (I did see this bit) and then it began to pluck the feathers.  I hope it got it's meal in the end as two Carrion Crows were eyeing up the event and the Sparrowhawk lifted it's prey and took off over the hedge.  The crows arrival actually alerted us to the possibility of something happening and I wonder if they's spotted the Sparrowhawk in the vicinity before it even made its kill.  Certainly the small birds were very skittish in the garden this afternoon, making them really difficult to count.  House Sparrows were the winners but not by much, followed by Greenfinches, which seem to have made an amazing recovery. We also had Goldfinches, Chaffinches, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (who stayed for ages on the fat balls) and various other small birds.  Only one Starling, though we have seen the odd gang, they don't seem to be doing so well this year.