In the garden, 17 November 2007

I had planned to go to Donna Nook to see the seals, but felt unwell and so had to make do with the garden instead.

The weather was chilly and quite sunny, with thin cloud.

I didn't see many insects - mainly a few flies sunning on the fence. The only ladybird spotted was a harlequin (both adult and pupa) . There was some sort of small pale yellowish leafhopper too, but no idea what sort it was.

A couple of mammals were seen - grey squirrel (nothing new there) and a vole of some sort, scampering in a woodpile. Next door's cat made an appearance too.

Birds were more plentiful, however. These included wrens, robin, jackdaws, great tits, blue tits, starlings, dunnocks, male chaffinch, blackbirds (five, in various stages of maturity), moorhens, collared doves, wood pigeons, rooks, a small flock of long-tailed tits (approx 6) and a sparrowhawk.

Sparrowhawks are regular visitors to the garden and have raised young here for at least a couple of years. On this potter down the garden I got my closest view of one yet . I was standing near a hedgerow, which separates us from the cattle next door, when all the birds in the hedge squawked in alarm and dispersed -- just as a female sparrowhawk burst through and went to land on a branch right in front of me. Unfortunately, she spotted me almost as soon as I saw her - and did a swift exit back through the hedge. I had my camera with me, but it all happened far too rapidly! She returned later and perched on a fencepost for a short while, but I was too far away to get anything other than a poor record shot.

We've been talking about having a hide in the garden for ages - this was one of those occasions when one would have been really useful!