Our first morning back at home after a week camping transformed from quiet and sleepy to excited in an instant. One of my daughters spotted a bird of prey in the back garden. I grabbed my camera, slapped on my longer lens, and tried to grab some decent images of what seemed to be a young female sparrowhawk on the fence. A sparrowhawk happily perched on a fence. I have a suspicion she was watching our neighbour’s bird table. Our feeders had been empty for the best part of a week, but Sue is good at keeping hers topped up. I’m not sure many small birds would be tempted to the table with a predator so clearly watching, but a magpie had no such qualms… Could the magpie be lunch? I suspect that either the sparrowhawk wasn’t hungry, or that it saw the magpie as too much of a challenge. It eyed it up a few times, but made no aggressive move at all, apparently happy to just perch on the fence. But apparently the magpie _s_ weren’t happy about their new neighbour, because a second one flew in from a nearby roof, heading straight for the sparrowhawk. There was a brief moment of aerial combat, and then the sparrowhawk took off up the river. I do hope she comes back. She’s an absolute beauty: The sparrowhawk on alert, as another magpie (out of shot) flies at her.

New writing by bestselling author Tom Cox.

Secret dens and dirty hands at the Sussex nature reserve

Rambling amongst the trees at Pulborough Brooks.