Sparrowhawk with Prey

Heavy rain overnight, haven’t looked at the iris yet. Was thinking what to do & other essential things when Gofer calls to come quick. Where? back garden. I rush downstairs & creep to the window. There on the lawn is a Sparrowhawk with its kill, a starling . I grab the camera and start snapping through the rain splodged window. Zoomed in a little eventually the camera focuses on the birds rather than the rain drops and it was just as well I’d left the ISO on 800!
The sparrowhawk started to pluck the starling. Fascinating but not pretty to watch as the starling was still alive. But that is nature in the raw. We watched it for about 4-5 minutes before the sparrowhawk flew off with its burden over the fence. It was just as well we’d done the RSPB bird count the day before. Gofer had counted 75 starling on the telegraph lines. Sad for the starling but glad it wasn’t one of our goldfinches or linnets. Brilliant to see the sparrowhawk so close. A magic nature moment. I also took some video so will put that up onflickr .