That beak!

We have seen a Sparrowhawk a few times in the garden, although this is the first time one has stayed long enough for me to get my camera. (I am assuming it’s a female as it has a more brown look than blue, but I may be wrong. )

Of course there wasn’t another bird anywhere to be seen - everything was very still. And eventually she flew off. 

I suppose, with feeding birds, we have made the garden an attractive  hunting ground for Sparrowhawks.  It’s a difficult one isn’t it. I don’t like the idea that we are making our little birds more vulnerable by attracting them to feeders, a bit of humane intervention in the natural world. But on the other hand we are only feeding the birds to try to combat the decline of birds caused by human intervention in the environment. And hawks have to feed too. 

The good thing for the little birds is that a hawk has to fly across a lot of open ground before arriving so they do have time to get out of the way. So maybe it won’t feed on too many of our birds.