Another sunny day, still cool in the breeze but fine for tidying up the garden (and keeping a watchful eye out for anything of interest).
Inevitably there are herring gulls. We're surrounded by them which does sometimes seem to make a mockery of their 'red' status which is due to declining breeding habitat. That said, we are a key area for the herring gull and in lieu of cliffs they more than make do with rooftops. This is just one of many that flies low over the garden throughout the year.
The other true garden staple (i.e. we are never without them) are the woodpigeons. Unlike the gulls who rarely land in the garden, the woodpigeons spend most of their time hopping between the ground, a slightly battered pergola and the small beech trees that line the northern edge of the garden. 
At ground level (strictly not quite that low) we have a small colony of slow worms living in the compost bin. They dived for cover when I opened the lid, so no photo today. Slightly less quick in its getaway was this small tortoiseshell butterfly.
The real interest of the afternoon was much higher up. Whenever a bird of prey passes overhead there's a noticeable change in the behaviour of the other birds. Sometimes it's a mass of noise that attracts my attention as they go in mob handed to chase the predator away; other times (like today) there's a sudden drop in sound as the local birds slip (temporarily) away. The silence caught me, and I looked up. A peregrine… These a big crops, but you can see the distinctive dark hood on its face, and the horizontal barring across the body.
It circled for several minutes, but generally too high for decent shots. This is another crop.
I did finally manage one shot that I do like…
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
derWandersmann
22 Apr 2013Nice one's Words! I wouldn't expect too much from a shot of a bird up that high … you're actually dealing with a subject that's backlit.
The woodpigeon and the gull are marvelous.
SittingFox
23 Apr 2013I like the peregrine and the plane – interesting shot :up:
Woodpigeons always look so startled :eyes:
Words
23 Apr 2013dW, thanks! I try to compensate for the sky with those shots, but it was sun-side of me for most of the time which didn't help. The sun was behind me for the final shot. It's been good to have some sunshine so I shouldn't really complain!
Words
23 Apr 2013Adele, the peregrine/plane shot was unplanned. I only noticed the plane later on when I was looking through the shots on the PC.