Very Interesting Visitor

Well, today looked as though it was going to be another fairly normal day, with no plans to do anything except get my hair cut - badly needed it, as it was getting long enough for pigtails!

Normal day that is, until I got to my parents and saw this fellow in the garden -

My parents are very lucky in that their garden backs onto a park which leads onto the Medlock Valley & they often have the pleasure of the wildlife popping into the garden to say hello, usually it's all the usual garden/park birds like the blue tits, coal tits, blackbirds, chaffinches, starlings, robins, long tailed tits (extremely cute, very tiny birds), and we've often had a woodpecker family visit - they all absolutely love the bird feeders we have out for them.

About a year ago, we had what looked like a very scruffy large starling perch on top of one of the feed stations. After a search through all the bird books and the RSPB website, we identified him as a Sparrowhawk.

Today, he came back looking stunning and very proud as he tried (unsuccessfully) to perch and stay balanced on the washing line! Both myself and Mom were stunned that he'd come back, then a little worried about the little birds still in the garden, as a Sparrowhawks favourite food is the little feathered friends we've come to love. We were lucky though, as after a wobble or two, the Sparrowhawk flew off into the valley to have a chomp on some voles instead! Phew!!