Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 6th July, 2024)

We have a lot of sparrows this year.

must have been a big sparrow with all them feathers

Caught in the act and as if to say ….’”what are you looking at?” Sad for the poor sparrow but that’s nature…That’s something very different today …you were just in the right place at the right moment David.

' I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.

My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot

Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads -

The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:

The sun is behind me.
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I'm going to keep things like this . '

'Hawk Roosting' by Ted Hughes.
Ted Hughes

A good photo David....but not for the poor sparrow. Nevertheless the Sparrowhawk has to eat. We had one who came like a bolt out of the blue into the garden & nearly took out a wood pigeon. You have to admire the sight these birds have...we also see Buzzards who fly high, circling round & round looking for food & getting mobbed by seagulls & crows.

Well caught both of you. That'll be a pigeon not a sparrow.

Excellent picture David, certainly a case of being in the right place with your camera at the right time.
Top predator of the avian food chain, only species to interfere with the natural order of things being humans with Turkey at Christmas and KFC!!!!

Must been a big sparrow with the size of those feathers. More likely a woodpigeon.
Just because they a called Sparrowhawk, it doesn't mean that's all they eat. Any bird of pray will most birds including mice rats etc.

Lovely photo. It reminded me of Kes.
Even though I know Kes was a kestrel. I'm late commenting today as we have been to Ingleton 1940s event where we bumped into Veronica!

We are also seeing lots of sparrows this year.

I cannot remember the last time I saw a Sparrow, but you can tell the weather is bad out to the west of the British Isles at the moment, because there are loads of Seagulls in the skies above Wigan.

It was lovely bumping into you and the Good Doctor Irene - both of you very smart in the 40’s garb. There were some lovely fashions - we stood out like sore thumbs in our ordinary clothes!

Irene, the actor who played Billy the lad in Kes visited Wigan in June,
I didn't go along, though I haven't been to The Forge Antiques.
https://www.wigantoday.net/news/people/famous-screen-actor-visits-wigan-store-3733267

There are a few Sparrows visiting our bird feeder and are the first ones in quite a few years, there were always plenty to be seen feeding at one time.

Cyril, I admire the man who played Casper in Kes greatly but in TV interviews he seems to have lost the Yorkshire accent he had in the film. I have often wondered why. A toddler will easily pick up a new accent but he was a teenager when he made the film
I find it so sad when people deny their regional accent. It is as if they are ashamed of their heritage when in reality they should be proud of it.

Thanks everyone, for your comments, cheers David.