The Sparrowhawk Returns

Just a short note:  Gordon still lives on, but the continued presence of the sparrowhawk has made all the local birds wary, and the bird feeders are now deserted for much of the day.

Today the hawk made a dash at a goldfinch.  It missed, and both the goldie and the hawk hit the lounge window.   The finch left a single feather stuck to the glass, and three inches to the right, the hawk left its clawprints visible on the glass.   The centre very long forward pointing toes, clearly identifying the bird.  The photo may, or may not be clear to the reader.

After its clash with the glass, the sparrowhawk flew a yard or so and perched, initially on my privet hedge, and then on the edge of next door's conservatory roof, posing rather nicely for a couple of pictures.

I think that, by clicking on the photos, you will get a larger version of them.

This pose reminds me of those emperor and king penguins in the Antarctic, the males shuffling around with the egg balanced on their feet, Very upright with the breast feathers allowed to droop down to warm the egg.   After less than a minute the bird flew off again, giving me a blurred and unusable third photograph as it did so.  The bird visits the garden daily now, but I doubt I will get much better photos, unless I catch it in an action shot.