{"id":27034,"date":"2018-10-15T23:04:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T22:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/?p=27034"},"modified":"2018-10-15T23:04:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T22:04:02","slug":"sparrowhawk-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/sparrowhawk-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparrowhawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m falling well behind with blogging. I’m due a fox update and also got a really nice set of horse-racing pictures that I should post (including some nice shots of this year’s champion jockey). But those are being put to one side (yet again) as when I got home late this afternoon a sparrowhawk was on the grass outside our back window devouring some prey (probably a pigeon).<\/p>\n

I do occasionally see sparrowhawks come very close to the garden and in 17 years have seen one land on a fence or tree here twice, so being down, in the garden, and with prey was something very unexpected. The shots were taken through the (dirty) double-glazed back door so lack some clarity, but they certainly give an idea of what we spent a good 10 minutes watching. Assuming the prey is a pigeon this is most likely a female.<\/p>\n

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Sparrowhawk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sparrowhawk devouring prey in garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sparrowhawk with what appears to be a pigeon’s feather<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Sparrowhawk with feathers strewn around<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We didn’t get to see it finish its feast as it was disturbed by noise from one of the neighbours. But a special few minutes, for certain.<\/p>\n

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 1DX Mark II and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m falling well behind with blogging. I’m due a fox update and also got a really nice set of horse-racing pictures that I should post (including some nice shots of this year’s champion jockey). But those are being put to one side (yet again) as when I got home late this afternoon a sparrowhawk was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,980,3],"tags":[1154],"class_list":["post-27034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-wildlife","tag-sparrowhawk","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t