Autumn sparrowhawk

I have a new sparrowhawk, the fourth in four years.  It has taken a while for the penny to drop because at first I assumed it was the same one as last winter who was here as late as August.  This is the new guy - another juvenile male.

As far as I can tell he has been here nearly every day for the past couple of weeks.  My first regular "resident" sparrowhawk was an adult male who arrived in January 2017 and stayed until the end of March.  The next was a juvenile male who was here from December 2017 until April 2018.  Then another juvenile male from November 2018 until April this year, with a brief return in August, and now this guy, arriving in September.  So they seem to be settling in earlier and staying longer each year.

Here is the first bird from nearly three years ago in his full RAF blue uniform, quite unmistakeable.  Notice the beautifully barred beast feathers.

This is the first juvenile from 2017/18, dressed in brown with two-tone heart-shaped markings on his upper breast feathers.

The second juvenile was here in 2018/19.  He had inverted arrow-head markings on the upper breast feathers.

When he called in a few times in August he looked a bit faded (his feathers were over a year old) and he was starting his first moult.  The outer breast feathers I think were new, with a touch of ginger, and the central ones looked scruffy. His irises were turning orange, a sign of maturity.

The newest bird is very neat, with dark heart shapes on the upper breast feathers, a greyish head, prominent white supercilia (eyebrow stripes) and yellow eyes.

Here are the three juveniles side by side.

The new bird is having a profound effect on bird activity in the garden.  There are many fewer birds in the kitchen garden and those that do come are very jittery and constantly alarming.  He has had an even greater effect outside the kitchen window.  Until he arrived I would regularly see 20 or 30 birds outside but now there are almost none.  Although I mostly can't see him, I think he often sits up in the oak trees in ambush and word has got round.

I haven't yet seen him make a kill but he seems healthy so he must be getting enough to eat.  A female sparrowhawk has killed two wood pigeons in the garden recently as well so it is no wonder the birds are all on edge.