17 November 2011

And you thought hybrid geese were shit

Ever seen a Goshawk x Sparrowhawk hybrid? No, I hadn't either, until today, when a chap comes along the sea-wall noisy accipiter on his glove. Luckily, for those of you who may want to see such a chimaera, and despite a certain caginess on the part of the owner, I was told it was "from a bloke in Wales" so, who knows, at some point one or two might escape and roam about, confusing all and sundry.

It's birds like this that bring out my cynical side, I couldn't help but wonder: a. about the origin of the breeding stock; and b. what is the point in this hybrid? I mean, if, for whatever reason, you wanted a bird of prey somewhere between Goshawk and Sparrowhawk why not get a Cooper's Hawk? Or a life,... obviously,... you could just get a life.

Don't get me started on Gyr x Merlin.

1 comment:

Alan said...

Great blog and post! I'm going to miss the birds in the UK when we relocate to New Zealand later this month.