I need to get out more

A combination of poor weather, having friends to stay, and a trip away has meant that I haven't been able to get out with the cameras recently and I have had to rely on the wildlife to come to me.  Still it hasn't been too bad, with sparrowhawks making regular visits.  I was pleased that both turned up while Sally & Chris were here and both have been here in the past three days.  Here is the mature adult bird putting on a show.

Here he is in a wide angle view to show how he sits by the feeder hoping to catch unwary incoming small birds.

And a short bit of video to show what he gets up to.  He is continually watching small birds flying about and computing whether it is worth a chase.  At the end of the clip he makes an attack and you can see how quickly he decides to strike, literally in the blink of an eye.  There is no sound from outside because the window is closed and normally I suppress the soundtrack.  On this occasion a piece by Philip Glass was playing in the background and was picked up by the camera.  As it sounds fairly menacing I decided to leave it in.  See what you think.

The attack failed and a couple of seconds later he was on top of the hedge, looking fierce,

before coming back to the perch.

Only one sparrowhawk appears at a time and I haven't seen any interaction between them.  I guess the adult bird would be dominant and take precedence, and he has certainly been around more in the past couple of weeks.  The juvenile bird was here just before dusk on a grey afternoon this week so the pictures are a bit grainy (ISO 12800).  On this occasion the window was open and yet he didn't react to the sound of the camera shutter.

My hope is that this will be the best winter yet for watching sparrowhawks.  This is already the earliest they have arrived and the only time so far that I have regularly seen two males.  I hope they both stick around.