Lunchtime

The sparrowhawk had been on his perch nearly all morning, watching and waiting.  I had been watching and waiting for much of the time as well.  Eventually I gave up and went to make a cheese sandwich.  When I came back he was already half way through one of his five-a-day.  This is the first time I have seen him take a kill back to the perch. Unfortunately he had his back to me so I had to move to a slight awkward position to get a view.

I suspect this was a blue tit.  It only took a couple of minutes to finish it off and he swallowed everything apart from the feathers that were on the ground.  From the look of it he had partially plucked the bird before carrying it up to the perch.

Once he had finished eating he spent some time cleaning the blood and feathers off his feet and wiping his beak.

Even then his feet weren't completely clean.

Then time for a bit of preening and he was as good as new.