The Eyes of a Killer

The sparrowhawk is patrolling through our garden fairly frequently these days. We know this because we've seen him and also because of the behaviour of the small birds, some of which hardly dare to leave the relative safety of a bush for a few moments at the feeders.

The ones which seem most frightened are the sparrows, chaffinches and green finches. The larger birds, such as the blackbirds, seem less worried, as - surprisingly - are some of the very small birds such as the blue and coal tits. I would love to know why because this hawk will happily take birds up to the size of a pigeon - I have seen one murdering a collared dove - and down as small as the tiniest tit.

It's a beautiful bird, but one has only to look at its eyes to be reminded that it is a finely honed killing machine.