A quiet spell

Sat in the conservatory reading and listening to the birds singing - a pleasant Saturday morning. Suddenly it all went very quiet except for the occasional tweet from a Blue Tit. Then I noticed something unusual sat just above the peanut feeder and ran to grab my camera:





















This female Sparrowhawk was sat there, I guess hoping the smaller birds would forget she was there, waiting...

I only got one snap before she was away. What was interesting though was the Blue Tits. They stayed within the tree and close to her, tweeting away, I guess they felt safe in the tangle of branches.

On Sunday when we were out digging (still trying to create a vegetable patch, still mainly digging up rubble) the noise level dropped away again, this time the Sparrowhawk flew across the garden and along the path behind our fence. On the return flight she was mobbed by some smaller birds, so I guess she'd caught one.