A female Sparrowhawk was a garden surprise.

Friday 11th March 2022.

This female Sparrowhawk perched conveniently on a neighbouring rooftop.

I can confirm that both my wife and myself have definitely caught Covid, however, I am so pleased, I guess, that I had all my jabs as it has really taken hold of me at the moment. The coughing is simply ridiculous and the hot and cold sweats along with it is incredible. I have been lucky most of my life and rarely had the ‘Flu’, but I suppose this is what it must feel like. I am keeping a close eye on my wife who is on a fair bit of medication for other ailments, so I am busy looking after her as she is working from home despite feeling awful! My employer has been told of my situation and it looks as though I will not be going back to work till next Wednesday. We have plenty of Lateral Flow kits and I shall test myself later this weekend.

She showed well during the few minutes perched on a TV Aerial.

The new Covid rules says that one does not have to ‘Self-isolate’ and though the weather this morning was looking a little grim, overcast and breezy with a bit of rain thrown in, I decided to get some fresh air and take Scruff for a walk around the Cemetery for a bit of fresh air. As I grabbed my camera from upstairs, something caught my eye when I looked out into our garden from the back door. It was a female Sparrowhawk that had popped up into our neighbours tree, so I rushed back to the front room to grab my camera to take some photos of the bird.

I liked the way the wind caught the birds tail in this photo. 

The Green Woodpecker scattered all these Wood Pigeons within the Cemetery. 

Unfortunately, though I slowly got to the back door, the bird had flown off, but thankfully landed on a TV Aerial on the block of houses opposite. Though the trees were in the way, I managed to focus on the bird and took as many photos of this beautiful bird and to be honest, I was rather pleased with the outcome. She sat there for a good minute or two and then popped down on the other side of the building and out of view, scattering the local Wood Pigeons in doing so.

Above, there were plenty of the usual Carrion Crows in the Cemy this morning including this showy bird. Below, several Starlings were passing overhead and this bird was singing from a rooftop at the southern end of the Cemetery. 

During my walk this morning, I avoided any contact with any person and kept a very wide berth from them, however, I had a good chat with a dog-walker who told me about both the Green Woodpecker and Jays he had seen this morning. So, we got into a chat, all the while keeping a big distance from him. There was rain in the air and wind when I arrived at Highland Road Cemetery, the first time I have been here since Storm Eunice and I was wondering what devastation that particular nasty bit of weather had caused. In fact, it looked as though the Cemetery got away quite lightly, though there was evidence of some large branches down on the ground still and a lot of big bushes have been removed from the Council by the look of it, exposing graves that would have not normally been seen because of the bushes.

There was evidence of Storm damage from recent weeks in the Cemy and plenty of work done by the Council too.

During my walk, there was a count of at least 16 species of birds either seen or heard within the Cemy this morning, of which the Green Woodpecker made a couple of brief appearances; seen flying from tree to tree, but always distant. I was a bit surprised to see the Jays still here, with three birds following one another through the Cemetery; though they proved  difficult to photograph as they hardly kept still long enough. All the usual suspects were present but there were no early surprise migrants to shout about. Both Black Redstarts and Chiffchaffs could have been lurking about here today, but I was not lucky enough to see any this morning.

A flock of Goldfinch were always present around the trees.

Red-dead Nettle was abundant.

Common Groundsel, a familiar weed on the graves. Their seeds provide food for the Goldfinches.

Blossom is now sprouting from some of the Cherry Trees, which attracted one hardy Bumble Bee (Buff-tailed?) to make a foray through the Cemetery. Flowering plants on show included Common Groundsel and Red Dead-nettle, which were abundant by the footpaths, though apart from Daffodils and a few Bluebells, hardly any other flowers have appeared yet. A few warmer, dryer days will change all that. As I was leaving the Cemetery and Scruff had his good walk (he is 15 years old now, but still enjoys his walk) , the rain got a little harder and so we hot footed it back home for lunch. Yes, I still have my appetite, but there's no birding with Andy tomorrow, though I might put my moth box in the garden if it's dry overnight?   

How long will the Jays be present here?