100k = £100 - The Big Forum Giveaway! - ENTRY CLOSED!

[Steve J]

Apparently female Sparrowhawks are big enough to down a pigeon.

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

(A bit OT from 100k post but: My wife took a photo years ago of a sparrowhawk killing a pigeon (which was strutting around under the kitchen window and failed its observation check)).

Back on topic - the increase in posts is interesting but I am sure it will drop off.  There's some good stuff though, which I am sure is Leon's intent.

Regards

Edward

[Techno]

Apparently female Sparrowhawks are big enough to down a pigeon.

Easy peasy.
Seen them take pigeons off the barn roof. (Makes the chickens run for cover !!)....They are FAST !!
Also seen a female munching on a pigeon while I was looking through the kitchen window from around 3-4 feet away.
Much, much bigger than you'd expect.

We also get bigger raptors around 'the farm', such as red kites and buzzards.
I SO wish I'd had the camera with me when a buzzard was sitting on a fence post close to the house.
The youngest cat we've got was sitting on the next fence post about 6 feet away from it......You could see the cat's mind working.
"I wonder if I could take that on ?"........And me going "Don't even think it Mickey!".......It looks one and a half times bigger than you.

Cheers - Phil

[Matt J]

Blimey. I knew they could but didn't think they did on a regular basis.

Don't see so many round here - Kestrels and plenty of buzzards mind and red kites now.

(Apologies for the derail please return to the usual flippery  )

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Mate of mine had a three legged cat, it had lost a leg to a trap.
One day it caught a rabbit as we watched, and was bringing it home along a hedge line, when the local peragrin falcon stooped, obviously thinking 'I'll have a bit of that!'
The cat sat up on its back legs, watched the approaching dot at 200mph, and swatted it into the hedge with its one good leg, picked up the rabbit and trotted home!
Never seen a raptor look embarrassed!

[Techno]

Blimey. I knew they could but didn't think they did on a regular basis.

I think that the thing is Matt, that we don't even notice the sparrowhawks taking the smaller 'garden' birds as prey....Whereas, when they hit a feral pigeon, at goodness knows what speed, there's an absolute explosion of feathers.....So there's no chance you would miss the fact, if you're outside.

My guess is, that the females will go for 'larger' prey if they've got young to feed....A bit like us doing a 'big shop', rather than doing lots of little trips.

Cheers - Phil.

[Orcs]

29th Dec 11:00 Please.

[Leveller Mutineer]

27th December 1900hrs

[Leon]

Back on topic - the increase in posts is interesting but I am sure it will drop off.  There's some good stuff though, which I am sure is Leon's intent.

It's always good to get more traffic, purely because it's nice to have more people about the place! 

We've had 13 new members join up in the last couple of days, so the giveaway is tempting people in as well.

[DaveH]

9th January 21:00

[steam flunky]

2nd January 23:00

[capthugeca]

 
3rd January 0800 GMT please.

[Techno]

Welcome to the forum Steam.
(Could have sworn I just posted this !)
Cheers - Phil

[kev1964]

26th December 19.00

kev

[Leon]

2nd January 23:00

Thanks for the guess, and welcome to the Forum.  I've popped your name onto the list, but you'll need to get up to 25 posts to be eligible for the prize.

[Jay Arnold]

January 8th, at 12:00 Noon.

Thanks Leon!

[Techno]

Think we might be celebrating a certain member's next promotion before we reach this target.
There is one at 5,000 isn't there ?
Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Well done Jay on a brilliant initial campaign to get to 25 posts, done with style, panache and no requests for British heavy tanks!

Techno, think the next rank is higher than 5k, Nik still shares our rank does he not? He's a good thousand ahead of me, even without the internet!

[ronan]

(...)
65 entries!

hey ! that's not bad !

[Techno]

Techno, think the next rank is higher than 5k, Nik still shares our rank does he not? He's a good thousand ahead of me, even without the internet!

He's an L/G Will.....Which I presume, outranks you and me.
We're only M/Gs....
I do find that an odd way of doing the ranks though.
Cheers - Phil