It’s just a little after 8 o’clock and the evening of a wet and miserable day that has had very little to offer the amateur naturalist and photographer. Then a really special encounter in the garden, a young sparrowhawk came into the garden and made a swoop at my pair of Parrotlets in an outside aviary. This has happened 3 times now since I have lived here, 23 years. Having realised it couldn’t get in to its intended prey it perched just 6 foot away and looked at me for 10 for seconds or so before sweeping away and out of the garden. This gave a chance to see it’s beautiful plumage and marvel at it’s agility. I took this photograph last year when we had this bird in the garden for over an hour before it finally had enough and left. You can see that this bird damaged its face when it tried to get through the wire at the birds inside.