Raptor.

Decided to cut back some of the green stuff that has exploded as a result of all the recent rain. The holly hedge was the first victim. It's one of those really jaggy ones, the kind that manage to scratch even if you are wearing jeans. Then I took on some nettles. Similar story there, so I use loppers. Not terribly functional, but it did mean that I managed to avoid most of the stings.

By lunchtime I had given up. I had found other things to do which were much more interesting. Still, didn't stop me going out to the garden later on to try and get a blip. The first wood anemone had opened and I thought it would do the business.

Didn't quite work out like that. There was a fair old racket from the tree above and, looking up, I thought that the local sparrows were having a scrap with a blackbird. I was a bit surprised at the way the "blackbird" was dropping through the branches though. As it turned out, the bird was black because I was looking into the light. I only realised it was a kestrel when It swooped out of the tree carrying a screeching sparrow in it's talons and landed in front of me.

So, there am I standing watching all this with camera and close up lens in hand. I had just decided that I could probably use the macro as a telephoto to get a half decent image when the dog went to see what was going on and chased the bird away.

Anyway, took the anemone inside to get this picture and spotted these three matches. I thought they looked like his talons a bit. My wildlife photography sucks!