Poor Little Birdies!!

As if it wasn't enough that the poor birds that do venture into my garden to feed, get constant and relentless harrassment from my beastly Bengals, they appear to have another problem. Now, I am a huge fan of birds of prey but what I witnessed up close and personal today was something completely new!

There I was in the garden, after bringing the girls back from school, having a look at my chickens. I heard a fuss in the tree where I hang the bird feeders, and looked up to see a Sparrowhawk fly out of the tree and right in front of me with a blue tit in it's talons! Now, I know this is what Sparrowhawks do, and I have seen them in the fields darting along the hedgerows, but never quite like this. I was actually quite shocked.

Then about twenty minutes later I was stood quite close to said tree on the phone to my mother. The Sparrowhawk came back for another go, and flew within a couple of feet of my face, I actually ducked! It was lovely to see, I really enjoy seeing more and more wildlife, especially when the kids get to see it too, (they saw the hawk through the lounge window) but I wish it would leave my poor little birds alone. The fact that it was so brazen and was totally unbothered by me standing there just amazed me.

Speaking of local wildlife, me and the girls were lucky enough to see a badger a couple of evenings ago. We were coming home from the high school visit, it was dark of course because it gets dark so early now. As we came up the drive there was a badger badgering about. The girls loved seeing it. Animals like this must seem like a myth to some people who never get the chance to see them.

Funny day today, the weather couldn't decide whether to be sunny or raining, so I'll leave you with these pics of the hill this afternoon.