A lucky capture on trail camera

Most often the recordings on my trail cameras are carefully targeted but every now and then it is down to luck.  These two cameras were set up near the water, fairly close to a large starling roost.  The sparrowhawk triggered the first camera right at the water's edge.  Unfortunately it was a bit too close so we can't see its feet and can't tell whether it was squeezing its prey to death or drowning it.  It then jumped up the bank just as the camera was taking a brief break between consecutive 20s recordings and moved out of view.

It was then picked up by a second camera but a bit too far away for a good clear view.

All this happened 25 minutes after sunset, so it was fairly dark.  Ian Newton says in his book The Sparrowhawk that juvenile birds are more likely to hunt later in the day, presumably because they are still hungry, being less efficient hunters than adult birds.  As far as I can tell in this black and white video, this one could be a juvenile of either sex or an adult female.  Judging by it size relative to the prey I think it is likely to be a female.  When I saw on the camera's replay screen what had happened I went to look for feathers and found lots of starling feathers on the ground.

Sparrowhawks kill small birds easily but they are also  known to drown larger prey, although the behaviour is not common.  You can read mention of it here and here and even watch a video of it here.  It is not something I have witnessed in my garden but I have seen a sparrowhawk washing its feet in the pond after eating a chaffinch.