Simon Thomsett

Category: Black Sparrowhawk | Date: Nov 04 2007 | By: admin

4th Nov 2007.

The Black Sparrowhawk (B Spa) that had a head or spinal injury is much better. At first the bird could not stand and reacted to stimulus slowly. He had partial use of one leg and one wing and held his head at an angle. He was placed in a sling that suspended him upright with his feet just touching a cushion. Initially he was force fed, but even though he lacked co-ordination he soon tried to take chopped up food from a dish. When he failed to defecate I had assumed that his chances of recovery was poor. Because he remained without improvement for days I tried giving him tasks such as lowering the sling until he had to try to support his weight. When food time came round I gave him a whole dead day old chick to eat. He couldn’t of course but it kept him busy. When I returned from 2 days away the slow progress that seemed to stand still, was obvious. I took him off the sling and he collapsed on one side craning his head behind his back. Previously I had assumed the head craning to be a reaction to the annoying bandage sling from which he hung. But it was now obvious that this was part of his brain damage. He is being given thiamine, Vit B complex and Vit A as well as calcium rich diet, in a shotgun approach to solving any particular vitamin deficiency.

Today he stood up for the first time. When placed in a shed alone he managed to half run and half flap his way about the floor. He also was very quick to grab his food and could pluck and eat it unaided. His tail however remains at an acute angle. Sometimes his sits back on it and rolls over. But by and large the slow recovery is rewarding to watch. Even if he does not regain full use of his tail he may be useful for captive breeding in the future. Not that Black Sparrowhawks are an endangered species. In fact they are one of the very few that seem to be doing well and increasing and even colonising areas where exotic plantations of gum trees and high human densities occur. They also like doves, and in most small scale farms doves still do reasonably well. Regrettably they are also partial to domestic fowl. They have inadvertently done more damage to the reputations of all birds of prey by this habit. But the habit pays off, because they can still survive in areas long vacated by those raptors that do not take domestic livestock or chickens.Black Sparrowhawks are bold and aggressive. They ambush their prey at lightening speed. The late Leslie Brown wrote of one taking a chicken between the feet of two old men who were haggling over the price of the chicken!

Although I would have agreed that their range has expanded I have noted a decline in their numerical density in and around Nairobi in particular. In the late 1980’s I could guarantee finding as many as 5 nests spaced about one kilometre apart, in an area where Leslie Brown had considered them (in the mid 1970’s) “rare”. Here their population had exploded. But today these nests are not as numerous and I would put this down to more hazardous conditions such as security fences that now straddle every high wall, gate or circumvent each household. Razor wire coiled on high wall tops have killed Black Sparrowhawks. But much worse is the thin diameter high tensile electric fences that are virtually invisible. I once watched a Red eyed Dove flying at top speed through an avenue of trees in Nairobi, skip over a wall and hit this type of fence at full speed. It died on impact. I thought it may have been flying away from a hidden assailant at the time. Pane glass windows are notorious for impacting birds. It may be fair to say that for every square meter of pane glass window there is so many dead birds. Today it is fashionable to have large patios in the sub-urbs surrounded by panoramic pane glass looking out onto lawns. Birds are not very stupid and would avoid impact if we were not so very clever at making an invisible obstacle. People, myself included put cut outs of raptors on such windows. Birds simply fly around them and still hit the glass. This Black Sparrowhawk was almost certainly one such casualty.

I flew Vero’s the Verreaux’s Eagle this afternoon and she disgraced herself by chasing my dog around. The dog, a complete “Shenzi” (Heinz multiple mix purchased for $3 from a nearby cattle boma) is a brainless dingo-type, with no name. But she is full of beans and likes to taunt Vero’s. I suspect she thinks Vero’s is a potential friend. But Vero’s would much rather eat her.Vero’s has so far failed to catch her and I have a sneaky suspicion that Vero’s actually likes the game and would never hurt her.

Vero’s flying.

Tiny Tim the male Lanner flew well. He chased Crowned Plovers so hard that they dived into a herd of wildebeest and zebra to escape him. He has a messed up tail. Although it has been imped (old term for fixing flight feathers with pins in the soft part of the shaft) he has broken them again. He has only one dove to his credit. Although he looks fantastic in the air and can fly hard for 20 mins at a time he still has a lot to learn.

Rosy and Girl the Crowned Eagle pair seem to have given up on their egg. Rosy (the male) persists in incubating it. I was not sure when it was laid as it appeared next to another egg that died at pip. But I think their time is up. Girl knows, but Rosy still holds out hope.

The B Spa spends his first night standing in his box in the living room tonight.