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Saw a soaring hawk, quite high, south of our house this afternoon, maybe 16:00. Over houses rather than over the Common, although that is not far away. If we were in the west country or in the Isle of Wight, I would have said buzzard, but I suppose it might have been a sparrow hawk or a kestrel. Tail spread and not forked, so not a kite.

A dozen or so squawking parakeets in the vicinity but I am not sure whether that was anything to do with the hawk.

The last occasion, last September at reference 1, was equally vague but in a more likely place. While the one before that, last July at reference 2, was equally vague, in a less likely place and secondhand. But maybe there is a seasonal effect here.

With thanks to the Hawk & Owl Trust and Andy Thompson (reference 3) for the snap above. The Andy Thompson photographers turned up by Bing seem to be the wrong ones, but he does do plenty of work for reference 4, a new-to-me-site containing lots of striking photographs. While I thought that this one, the buzzard, might have been touched up a bit in Photoshop or something of that sort. All seemed a bit sharp for a natural photograph.

PS: it is odd how we all like to look at (pictures of) animals doing stuff to other animals - stuff which we would not approve of humans doing at all. But vicarious predation, fine.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/faits-divers.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/07/alien-tweet.html.

Reference 3: https://hawkandowltrust.org/.

Reference 4: https://www.birdguides.com/.