An unexpected visitor (69/365)

[white_hart]

I glanced out of the window in passing earlier, did a double-take and shouted to T to ask him to bring me my camera, because there was a sparrowhawk sitting on the fence.



It stayed for a few minutes, until one of the local cats came sauntering along the top of the block of garages at the end of the gardens, spotted it and showed distinct signs of thinking about leaping down from the garages to catch it. I'm not entirely convinced the cat would have come off best in that altercation, but the sparrowhawk clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and flew off, leaving a disgruntled-looking cat behind.

Comments

[joyeuce]

That's a great photo! Round here we get red kites, but they don't normally come as close as that.

[white_hart]

We have lots of red kites too, but I normally only see them soaring overhead rather than perching. (Though we were walking near the Ridgeway once and startled one up from where it had been snacking on a pigeon. It was surprisingly big close to.)