Sparrowhawk & Weasels

On my way back from my regular walk this morning I was just in the right place to watch a failed attack by a male Sparrowhawk on a finch of some sort (too high and too quick to be certain of sp). As I walked back up to Park Nook Lock near my house I saw a finch being pursued very closely by a male Sparrowhawk at a height of around 30 feet. The hawk gave up the chase very quickly even though he looked to be near enough to catch the finch despite the finches frantic twists and turns to avoid being grabbed. The second surprise in the chase was that as soon as the hawk broke off its attack several small birds chased it off over the river amongst these was the bird which seconds before had been chased by the hawk !!

A pleasant new addition to my daily walk down the towpath is the increasing frequency of weasel sitings. I now see one at least once a week somewhere along the towpath and as these sitings are spread from Rawsons pool to the Avocet factory I assume they are of different individuals rather than one pair or individual. I know the live trapping and removal of the mink along this section of the canal has been controversial, but it seems that with the removal of the larger introduced mustelid the smaller native ones have now managed to recolonise the area. I have not seen the large black dog mink in his usual patch since early winter and assume he has perhaps now died of old age ( I have been watching him for several years now). I know hes not been trapped as I released him on the one occasion he did enter the live trap last year. I regularly see a weasel moving around the old minks old home patch and it would not have done this had the old dog mink still been around. Nice to see the weasel but I have to admit that I will rather miss the old dog mink. I never saw him take ducks or fish and the twice I did see him with prey it was a large brown rat he was taking back to his lair in the canal wall. He never got used to my presence and always took off at high speed into the canal and swam under water to his lair whenever he spotted me but I shall miss his rather majestic presence on my walks down past Rawsons Pool.