Sparrowhawk flying with caught prey

I had a relaxed afternoon after a busy morning, much of which was spent taking photographs of the condition of the streets at the centre of Stroud.  I am helping to do a survey of all the streets within the Neighbourhood Plan area as part of our assessments.  

Once home I had lunch, watched some tennis, listened to some Test match cricket, and followed some of the Tour de France as the riders travelled through Normandy, all of which was restful and enjoyable.  It has been a lovely summer's day being warm but not too hot, and sunny with a few pretty clouds scudding across the sky.

After 6pm I made a cup of tea and went with my camera to sit on the patio in the garden having topped up the nearby bird feeders.  My presence of course inhibited any birds coming to feed, even though I had seen some goldfinches, bullfinches, tits and nuthatches just before I sat on my chair. After sitting for a happy half hour there, Bomble came to see me as did Illium, his tabby friend from next door who strolled up from the wild area at the bottom of the garden.

I suddenly heard a commotion of birds in the sky a bit down the valley.  i looked up and spotted a gull harassing another bird and immediately pointed my camera even though it wasn't really set up for such shots.  They were above the back gardens of houses about fifty yards down the street.  I knew something was up and then adjusted my settings and realised that it was a tussle between the gull and what I thought was a kestrel.

It was all over in a few seconds and the gull flew off in one direction and the other bird flew on up towards the top of the hill in front of our house.  Having looked at the images, I can see that it was a sparrowhawk being attacked by the gull and it had a small chick of some unknown species held by its claws under its body.

I have added a picture of the two birds, but I think you should be able to see the rather sad view of the dangling legs of a chick beneath the hawk. I assume that the chick wasn't the gull's offspring.  The gull was being opportunistic, trying to grab some food.  If it was its own chick I think there would have been more of an aerial dogfight.