Eye On Nature

We have a large bird-table and several feeders with nuts, sunflower seeds, etc. in our garden. Up to the last few months we had sparrows, wrens, goldfinches, thrushes, blackbirds, blue tits and great tits and a miscellany of starlings feeding there daily. Then we discovered they were being devoured by a beautiful sparrow hawk. He has even followed a sparrow into my kitchen last summer. What can we do?

Anne-Marie Stynes, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7

Another Eye on Nature correspondent (Dec 9th) had the same problem and he put net wire around the feeder. This worked for a while but the sparrowhawk came and frightened a bird out of the safety of the net wire and pounced on it. We have net wire around our bird table and hang the feeders in thorn bushes and trees. Our local sparrowhawk patrols the garden but can't get at the feeding birds.

Edited by Michael Viney who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. E-mail: viney@anu.ie (E-mails shoul d include a postal address.)