Monday 10th.November 2008

Well , I wasn't going to post today as it has been wall to wall rain all day , at some times almost torrential . Consequently I haven't been out of the door , and I'm sure anyone logging on has had enough of the female Brambling on the feeders .

Then , just about 1400 , Carol was watching the latest downpour from the back bedroom window , I had just gone to the loo , when Carol calls out ' where are you , get in here quick , and be careful as you look out the window '. I crouch below the window , grab the camera which was nearby , and slowly stood up using Carol to hide my movement . I didn't know what to expect , the rain was torrential , streaming down the window and the light was terrible . Anyway , there sitting on the post behind the stone Squirrel was

what I believe to be a juvenile male Sparrowhawk . I was happy to have got a shot , as usually they are gone before you can focus , but this one just sat there looking around and very wet .

I managed about 15 shots , then he made as if to take off . Well he did , but only to the roof of the birdhouse about a metre away , the one the Brambling has posed on .There he sat for another couple of minutes , whilst I took another 15/20 shots , albeit of poor quality . Eventually , he flew off down the garden at low level , and then reappeared in a Silver Birch in a neighbour's garden , three houses down . We watched him for a while , and the rain got even heavier , then he flew down , presumably to get shelter in a shrub or the like . We never saw him again , but feel privileged to have been so close for so long , even knowing why he came to the feeders . The only sighting on the feeders in the hour+ since he left , was a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the peanuts halfway down the garden , perhaps he is still about . Looking through the shots I got , I wish the light and weather conditions were better . Shooting through double glazed window streaming with rain is not conducive to good shots , but if conditions were good , then he probably would have been gone before the first shot was taken , and if Carol hadn't been at the window , we would never have known he was there at all .

Answers to last night's birds :-

Bird 11 . Tittling or Gowk -----------Cuckoo

Bird 12 . Tom Pudding or Arsfoot ----Little Grebe

Tonight's birds :-

Bird 13 . Guernsey Nightingale or Nettle Creeper

Bird 14 . Mouse Falcon or Stannel Hawk