Looks like being a good winter for Sparrowhawks in the garden: two different birds in the last few days, one favouring the chase-it-and-grab hunting technique, and the other using the I'm-not-too-hungry-so-I'll-just-hang-about-and-see-what-comes-to-me-technique, which I've seen in the past can be quite a successful approach. If you perch in full sight, after a while the prey starts to ignore you and you can then pounce. It saves a huge amount of energy if it works, and means you don't have to hunt as often. I've done it myself in the past with Mountain Hares and Fallow Deer (photographic hunting only, of course). The percher is the best-positioned Sparrowhawk I have ever had in the lilac: absolutely perfect from the bedroom window. It even ignored a Sainsbury's delivery van driving past less than 5 metres away. Bodes very well...
Sparrowhawk images from previous years on my website:
https://www.martingracephotography.com/.../eurasian...
