Dean Garnier Garden Winchester Cathedral, Goshawk

This morning  we cycled to ukulele class, and  on our way home cycled through the cathedral close, where we popped in to see the Dean Garnier garden, an oasis of calm in the city. 

This  evening we went to the RSPB local meeting where we heard a very interesting talk by Conor Mark Jamesonwho has spent many years searching for the Goshawk, a magnificent bird of prey ( much bigger than  Sparrowhawk) rarely seen in Britain, yet probably more common than most people think. Conor has  written a book about  his travels in search of Goshawks. Although usually they are associated with living  in forests, such as Kielder, Thetford, New Forest and  Forest of Dean,  he has found them in many towns, including  a number of  them  living in the  city of Berlin, where they nest in trees in urban parks, and feed on pigeons. In one study in England their favoured  prey food was grey squirrels.  
They were (and  still are) a favourite  bird used by falconers, but wild goshawks  were  persecuted in UK, to extinction, because it was thought they took lots of game birds.However, this has not been proven. Gradually over the past century, they have  made their way back here from other  parts of Europe.       
My only definite sighting  of a goshawk was some years ago  in woodland  in  Abernethy, Scotland, when  an enormous brown bird  swept silently and powerfully through  the trees, just above my  head height. But now, I shall be looking out for evidence of them everywhere.
Watching other birds, especially  crows, behaving strangely and suddenly  flocking tightly  together, can indicate when a goshawk is about. Their  plucking posts are very gruesome with masses  of feathers and  other animal remains torn up  by their fierce some  talons. Not a bird to be messed with!