Home Patch (11): Mystery Bird ...

Who's that hiding on my fence?

It has been an 'exciting' morning in the garden ... probably a bit too exciting if you happen to be a small bird. Not only did we receive a visit from this bird of prey, which I take to be a Sparrowhawk (please confirm or correct!), but I also heard a long burst of Cuckoo song. I have not heard a Cuckoo in England for a long time (or in Wales for that matter), but in recent years we have enjoyed listening to the clarity of Cuckoo song in Scotland above the water between Skye and the mainland.

The photo above was taken through glass on a dreary wet morning. I had seen what seemed to be a Sparrowhawk or possibly a Kestrel a few days ago, so I was keeping a wary out eye for a second appearance. When the bird landed this morning, the shrub was in my way, but there was little I could do with the glass between us! A beady eye has been caught on camera ...

We had three Mallard fly overhead yesterday, so it's time to update my Home Patch bird list ...

• Blackbird

• Blue tit

• Carrion Crow

• Chaffinch  

• Collared Dove

• Cuckoo ... heard but not seen on 9 May 2012!  RED Conservation status

• Dunnock

• Goldfinch

• Great tit

• Greenfinch 

• Grey Heron (who flew past without landing)

• Herring Gull

• Jay

• Long-tailed tit

• Magpie

• Mallard (these flew past without landing)

• Robin

• Song Thrush

• ?Sparrowhawk

• Wood Pigeon

Incidentally, on the subject of birds, I have just read that there was a Flamingo (with photo here) at Trimley Reserve, not far my new Suffolk home, and a Hoopoe (a bird I would so love to see ...) at Whiteford Burrows, a few miles from my previous Swansea home!