KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS

I was really spoilt for choice this morning. I nipped over to the old cemetery for an hour before I had to be back to wait for a delivery. (Hermes: prompt, careful and courteous. Credit where it's due, because I know plenty of people have the opposite experience, but Bob, our local Hermes driver, is excellent.) I thought at first this was a wood pigeon high up in the tree, but when I zoomed in it was this handsome sparrowhawk who was there for ages just looking about. The tree is a lovely old conifer which had a twin trunk until Storm Arwen split off and sadly felled its other half, so now the interior is much more open.

I thought that was treat enough but on my way through the cemetery back toward the gates I saw a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers chasing each other around the tree tops (male in first extra, pair - highlighted - in second extra), and then there were some rooks hanging out with the crows and jackdaws near the gate. What with the ubiquitous magpies, and the occasional jay, that's five corvids I've seen in the cemetery.