I came out of my house this morning and noticed a large bird on the ground further up the road near the old College. I grabbed my camera as the bird proved to be a large female Sparrowhawk sitting on a pigeon. It was not eating but kept looking left and right at a crowd of Magpies, Jackdaws and Blackbirds that were vocally alarmed by it's presence. After a few minutes a vehicle came down the road and the Sparrowhawk took flight, surprisingly followed by the pigeon. Another Sparrowhawk had done something very similar a few months ago, again with a pigeon, almost directly outside the house. That pigeon did not survive the encounter. Unluckily, I was informed by my wife of that one and totally missed it myself. Photo and sighting by Phil Matthews
