Eurasian Sparrowhawk – Russell Jenkins Stoop Files

Dark Day Hunters

December 15, 2019August 17, 2023 by Russell Jenkins, posted in Japanese Birds

December can be dark and gloomy in Niigata. There can still be beauty and excitement to find however. I fear my D500 and 5.6 lens capture more noise than I like. That said, it is remarkable what current cameras can do.

Eurasian Marsh Harrier

Northern Goshawk and Carrion Crow

Sparrows

Eastern Buzzard and Eurasian Marsh Harrier

An Encounter with a Beautiful, Young Eurasian Sparrowhawk

December 2, 2019August 17, 2023 by Russell Jenkins, posted in Japanese Birds

Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus nisosimilis) Immature female

I went to Hyoko twice over the weekend. The first day was 5C when I got there and I think it got colder as time went on. Yesterday, was sunny and 15C. The birds behaved differently each day too. Yesterday’s sunny warmth seemed to allow everyone to be relaxed and sleepy. Very different to seeing a lot of hunting raptors the cold, gloomy day before. Anyway, although it was quieter I did have a wonderful encounter with this young sparrowhawk. At first I thought she was a young male goshawk, but I realised she had a daintier face and feet once I’d downloaded the files.. Thankfully, I posted some pics at Kantori in Japan and the kind birders there confirmed that she is likely a young female Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus nisosimilis). I was confused as the tail looked rounded and barred and none of my field-guides’ illustrations depict sparrowhawks like this. Now I know they too have barred tails, but the shape of the head is very different to that of a goshawk.

It was a lucky encounter. I decided to walk alongside a long hedge of dead reeds in case something popped out, and it did! Lucky me! Even luckier, she started to shoot off away from me, then she turned around and started to circle which brought her right over me. At first she was too close but then rapidly went up into the sun and away.

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Accipiters a Plenty

December 6, 2014 by Russell Jenkins, posted in Uncategorized

Eurasian Sparrowhawk

Fukushimagata, Niigata, Japan

November 30, 2014

Here are some of the results from my walk around Fukushimagata last Sunday. I’ve been thinking of buying a Nikon D7100 as my full-frame D800 is rarely close enough for the wetlands. Most of these pics are heavily cropped and I’ve already filled up my 2 terabyte computer hard-drive with photo files in just two years. I usually take RAW files as well but just went down the j-peg path with these…but I’m disappointed with the quality.

Apart from the photos it was a very warm day for that time of the year and birds of all kinds were a plenty.

Today is snowing heavily with a maximum forecast of 2 degrees Celsius so I’m inside doing my blog!

Japanese Green Pheasant

I disturbed 3 pheasants in the long grass under foot…first, one, then I took another step and two more burst out over the water….within two seconds the goshawk below appeared hot on their tails, just failing as they made it to the reeds on the other side of the water.

Northern Goshawk

Waterfowl at Fukushimagata

At first, I thought this largish raptor was a goshawk.
It attacked the large resident peregrine just before I got this shot but now I realise it’s a sparrowhawk. Sparrowhawks are not so common in Niigata.

Northern Goshawk

Adult goshawks are not so easy to get close to, but I saw at least three different ones within a couple of hours.

Eastern Marsh Harrier

lots of harriers too

Eastern Marsh Harrier
scanning over the water for unaware quary

Bean Goose

Mallard

Male