Sparrowhawk surprise

Regular blog readers might remember this photo of a stunning sparrowhawk that we caught and ringed on the island back in March this year. They are such impressive birds and have to be handled very carefully because they have incredibly sharp claws and hooked beak. You would think this bird could take care of itself, but we recently got news that this bird was found dead 2 months after it had been ringed, 266km away on Priest Island, the outermost of the Summer Isles on the North-West coast of Scotland. A funny place for a sparrowhawk to turn up. And what is more it seems that it might have been killed by a peregrine !  This is just one of the interesting stories that comes out of ringing birds.