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Description
Friday's FliersThere seems to be a never ending parade of different birds passing through the garden at Elderslie. We've erected a new feeding station remote from that near the kitchen and have seen a couple of new species, to us at least, appear there. But first, in this Journal, how about this:

I think this is a sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), but as usual I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better. If you look up sparrowhawks on the Web or in books you will see that there is variation in the colour and patterning of the plumage, often the feathers appearing quite grey. Here, though, the brownish hues are dominant. The eyes of the bird also show a yellow iris whereas in many other raptors the irises are almost invisible. In any event, this bird perched in this gap in the hedge that separates the garden from the meadow for about 5 minut

Description
Friday's FliersThere seems to be a never ending parade of different birds passing through the garden at Elderslie. We've erected a new feeding station remote from that near the kitchen and have seen a couple of new species, to us at least, appear there. But first, in this Journal, how about this:

I think this is a sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), but as usual I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better. If you look up sparrowhawks on the Web or in books you will see that there is variation in the colour and patterning of the plumage, often the feathers appearing quite grey. Here, though, the brownish hues are dominant. The eyes of the bird also show a yellow iris whereas in many other raptors the irises are almost invisible. In any event, this bird perched in this gap in the hedge that separates the garden from the meadow for about 5 minut