Kamikaze raptors!

The previous entry by Chris on the fatal injury suffered by the Peregrine reminds me of an incident at my home some years ago. One afternoon I returned home to find a dead male sparrowhawk on my front porch and when I examined it I noted that the sternum or breastbone of the bird was exposed having broken through the flesh and when I looked at the large window of my dining room leading off the porch I found blood and bits of flesh on the pane of glass! I think what had happened was that the bird had probably honed in on a target perhaps a robin thrush or blackbird and had flown at great force into the window causing the substantial trauma to its body. This was the 3rd sparrowhawk death I have experienced since living at our present address on another occasion I was standing at the kitchen window when there was an almighty crash on the glass pane and when I went outside to investigate I found a female sparrowhawk in the last throes of death below the kitchen window. I am convinced that if the pane had not been double glazed then the bird would have come crashing through the window. Peregrines and sparrowhawks are some of natures supreme aerial killers and they fly at incredible velocity when honing in on their prey its little wonder that they sometimes come to grief when in these circumstances.