The second visit this year.

Around 12 months ago I was feeling sorry about losing a blackbird to a sparrowhawk. At the time, I felt quite sad. The main reason was that I was looking at a bird of prey with half a songbird. It took me a while to get used to the idea that this was nature and it was a sign of a healthy bird population.

So far this year, I’ve had two visits from as far as I can see the same male bird. And these are the most recent shots:

I decided that when the raptor arrives, I will open the window for the best shot I can get. And on this occassion I almost blew it. So what I did was take a few shots and allow the sparrowhawk to enjoy its starling buffet.

These pictures are a little bit special because of the behaviour I’ve captured. My favorite is the speading of his wings to protect his kill. Better photos have been taken, but these are my pictures and no one else took them.

This was my previous favorite picture from this year:

I was definitely getting the eye when I took this, but I wanted lots of pictures. This was probably a happy accident. And to this day, I don’t know if he caught a squuirrel or a starling. No feathers were found, but no fur either. But after today’s kill I’m going for squirrel, because I found feathers today.

I’m so please that I’ve had the chance to look outside my windows. I’m also iin a whole lot of shit because I have time to look outside my windows. And right now, it will be government policy that all I can do is look outside my windows. This is life in lockdown.

My plan was to write a little bit. Taking photos is relatively new in the scheme of things. But my plan was to push on and hope that I could change direction and hope that things could change. Things have changed fundamentally and no one has any idea what the world will be like in 12 months. But one thing I know is that the birds will still be here, councils will not cut the grass as much, bees will make a return, and the world around us will improve.

On the downside, people will lose jobs and run out of money. It pains me to ask, but what would you rather be, a dove or a hawk?