Sparrowhawk festival.

Sometimes the unexpected happens, and occasionally it can be brilliant. Normally it doesn’t happen and it isn’t brilliant and I often bemoan other people for being jammy. However, I know that jammy dodgers are really those that put the hours in, you really do make your own luck.

So saying this I was nicely surprised when a male spar dropped into a small bird feeder I was photographing at recently. He perched well and preened. The next event was really left field. He watched as presumably his mate flew in and perched only 10m away.

She looked around for a good ten minutes then with an explosive start that I could hardly follow launched herself into the shrubs next to the feeder. A quick stretch of her long, yellow legs and she had condemned the only goldfinch at the site. It is always with mixed emotions that I witness such events, excitement at the raw edges of the killer tinged with more than a smattering of sadness at the demise of such a beautiful bird.

The female spar with no sentiment spared plucked and scoffed goldy over the next five minutes. The male spar than flew down to a nearer perch and watched her though he didn’t interfere with her repast. He than retreated to a tree in the near distant and she, replete, flew up to the perch he had just vacated. This all sounds too good to be true, and if I add that the light on the perches was gorgeous I can understand why most will think so! But if you put the time in, lady luck will occasionally smile for you!