Well she was back today. Sitting on the concrete post a few feet from the feeding station and didn't seem at all bothered by me watching her from the top of the garden. What a magnificent creature she is, the beautiful and the lethal all at once.
We have a resident sparrowhawk, and an Owl hoots most nights. We did have a shock when an escaped Goshawk landed on the patio, complete with tailboard, which supposedly stops them flying off. Wrong. Chuffing big bird. This one got mobbed by the local magpie gang until it departed.
It had a sort of canvas wrap and board around the tail. When we reported it, they said that should stop it flying off. It had jesses on as well. Thats how we knew it was an escapee and not wild.
Just had a visit from the local sparrow hawk, he took a blue tit of ten, at the feeder, doesn't often get a blue tit as they don't stay on the feeders, pick up a seed and fly into the berberis bush alongside, one just unfortunately out when it came through, as soon as the sparrow hawk flew the rest carried on feeding, if it hadn't caught a meal the birds would have disappeared for a while.
This scenario is played out in nature the world over. The herds of antelope at the waterhole when a tiger appears, the sea lions when a great white shark is spotted, me when the wife is in a bad mood...
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Joking aside, Roland was up at the compost bin doing what men do, when a sparrow hawk flew out of the bushes and skimmed past his ear, Scary!