Well, Mort, by the SSPCA had arrived, she'd escaped from Chairlie's makeshift enclosure and made short hops back to ours, then to Liz-next-door's then across the road to Gordon's, where she lodged herself in a huge hedge, meeting place for many a neighbourhood moggie. So she's still at large.... We'll keep an eye out tomorrow.

Here's one more picture, not shot through glass for once, although it was getting darkish, and I was hand-holding the big camera with a 300mm lens and the ISO upped to 1600....


(BeeZee; the feral pigeons at Reading (General) Station used to have the most manky limbs I've ever seen on avians: club-feet, no feet, one-and-a-half legs, one leg, you name it, one of them would have the permutation. Revolting. Since raptors use their talons (and just look at those needles) to catch, hold-down and rip prey, a one-legged hawk would be at a distinct disadvantage....)

I've been gallivanting since this moring, Mort, but there was no sign before I left, and no sign now. No feathers, though.

I see that the Red Kite is makin g a resurgence in some parts of Britain. Unfortu nately, I cantr rememebr which ones. I dont suppoose the RSPB would know?

We've got Red Kites.  There's a few on Marton Moss near the motorway and I've seen one on the nature reserve here.  In fact I've never seen as many birds of prey as I've seen recently.  There's a terrific upsurge in numbers.

I wish they'd hunt elsewhere than my garden. 

We had them in Caversham all the time too, hh, fabulous creatures hovering overhead, with one wing flap every couple of minutes. I really miss them: we've plenty of buzzards here, but they're nothing like as exciting in their flight.

In Shakespeare's time they were commonly to be seen scavenging on the streets of London.

Have just heard another - though higher - kee-kee-keek, and dashed through to the kitchen in time to see a largish shape through the fence in Chairlie's garden: one pounce and it was away with something feathery, executing a steeply-banked turn round the side of the next house. Chairlie saw it too, from his window - obviously not the same sparrow-hawk, this one was in prime condition and judging by the redder colouring probably a male; it had taken a starling. We were both surprised to see a second one so soon: I can't recall ever seeing one in the garden before, though there' s pair in the copse down the road near the Gym.

Perhaps the injured one was one of their offspring. No sign of that at all.

It's the first time I've seen one do that 'live' Mills. Vertical take-off, too, like a jump-jet.

Have a feeling that the starling may already have been in trouble, since the battered ginger-and-white moggie* from across the way was tight-roping down the fence towards Chairlie's place at exactly the same time, until the hawk whooshed past him, quarry tucked beneath. Ginger did a slow-motion double-take, completely mystified at what had happened to his snack.

* Ginge is diabetic, and only survives thanks to a daily injection. I dread to think what it must cost.