Sparrowhawk flight call? (1 Viewer)

[Andy Strachan]

Hi,
I was in the garden today (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) when I heard an unusual call from above. A sort of tongue fluttering FFRRRPP! Like when a dealer flicks through a deck of cards. I looked up and seen what might have been a Sparrowhawk. I'm probably about 60% sure thats what it was as it was quite high up but colour (greyish), jizz and flight behaviour seemed good. I heard it call about 3 times, lasting less than a second each time, when I ran in to get my binoculars. By the time I got outside again it was gone. There is a Sparrowhawk that visits our gardens so it seems quite likely.
The reason I'm here really is I can't find any Sparrowhawks making this call online. Can any one here confirm that they make this call? or one similar?
Any other idea's as to what it might have been?

 

[KenM]

Might have been the “soft” alarm call of a Corvid, in response to the Sprawks presence.
Sprawks are mostly silent, only occasionally giving a higher pitched “kee-kee” call, quite unlike the call that you have described.

Cheers

 

[Mark Lew1s]

Maybe a mistle thrush? Call sounds right at least

 

[rollingthunder]

I only ever hear Sparrowhawks when on territory during the breeding season - can’t say i have ever heard one call even in parties on migration.

Laurie -

 

[Andy Strachan]

Maybe a mistle thrush? Call sounds right at least

Thanks, I'd say that's a good contender, maybe the only. Looking up calls on xeno-canto that kind of fits. Now I'm more struggling to grasp with the fact that I might've thought a mistle thrush was a sparrowhawk It was the behaviour that swayed me really. It wasn't really flying anywhere directly. It was slowly tracking across the sky, while circling now and again. It was a bit breezy so there was a lot of wing flapping, which sort of made getting a good silhouette more difficult, and I could see that it was looking down, and I'm almost positive it made those calls. It just looked like it was eyeing up all the gardens down below for some prey. I'll never know exactly what it was, but whatever it was, I'd never heard it before. It all lasted about 10 seconds before I went inside.
Maybe Ken's right and it was another bird altogether making the calls in response to its presence.
Maybe it was a mistle thrush
It's one of those..
🤷‍♂️