UKH

…en to fly right over my head chasing a meadow pipit, failed, and headed towards a hazy sun. They’re small, and fast, so hard to photograph, and this one is silhouetted.  But still cool. 

Ha ha. A friend who I was climbing with at the weekend fooled me also for a bit. He mentioned Merlin in his garden and getting a flycatcher. It was the app of course and picking up sound he was talking about.

Merlin are too quick for me to photograph. Only ever seen them at high speed. On the other hand a Sparrowhawk is still a regular in the garden.

And just in case you couldn't identify Sparrowhawk it even gave a clue in the prey 😁

On the ground I've only ever had a female feeding off feral pigeon the once (for 45 minutes and then back the next morning for left overs), but several fly throughs.

A few years ago had a great view of a female Merlin on the east coast sitting there for a moment before it sped off - still need to get a good enough view of a male Merlin (to be able to confirm male).

Merlin are fast - this one turned into the wind after its failed chase, which stalled it a tad. Nice Sparrowhawk. 

Just this second photoed a very wet male sprawk perched on neighbours roof. Not seen one round our streets recently. Rubbish photo though. 

Twice now I’ve seen a male with prey just standing immediately after the catch. I’m guessing they like to wait until the prey stops moving before they fly off to eat, or so it seems. I’m sure they must see me so something is making them stay for a minute or two - time to go and get the camera and get a shot.

I feel sorry for my house sparrows as they are very twitchy these days. Gave me an opportunity at the weekend to try to work out what call/alert they use for rapid dispersion without success. It seems that something triggers all of them to head for cover with perceived danger. If I’m in the garden they take their time to move when I do, but it is instantaneous when something alerts them.

Twice in the last week a male has visited that I’ve seen. Earlier in the year I saw one twice in a day when I was sitting outside enjoying the sun. I therefore guess they could be a daily visitor, just I don’t see them often.

Certainly the house sparrows when feeding are not as content to stay long as they were earlier in the year.