Sparrowhawk versus Starling - no contest

   
Interim post today so I don't have to create a large post later.

Two female Sparrowhawk photos, usually I'd have to wait till winter for a female, and they are usually immatures. 

The hawk was in bushes at the back of my garden having flushed everything, I didn't know that until later when I looked at my security camera. I had walked past it and into my car, and while I was in the car it flew to the edge of my pond. I went back into my kitchen, only then did I see it with a Starling. Photos are from an upstairs window where I could the bird behind some plants.

Sparrowhawk in my garden plucking a young Starling

Yes more Swifts, and more will come when the youngsters start to leave their nest in my roof. They will leave and return often to start with. My neighbours are used to me standing in the street try to get impossible photos...

I suggested to Olive that these two Feral Pigeons reminded me of Olive and I. No comment yet!

One of five Herring Gulls that persisted in landing in the garden, it took ages to stare them down

Swifts , Terns, Dolphins, and Butterflies

I'll come back to this post, I've run out of time just now. Not much to say that isn't covered under each posted photo. 

I have added photos of Swifts from my garden and one of the four Yellowhammers. Swifts are never easy to capture and in an urban area with walls, garages, fences and buildings, they aren't seen till they are too close and too fast.

 

It took dozens of attempts to get this Swift using an older set up I use for insects

This one went straight into the nest in my roof

Visits are more frequent now they are feeding chicks

This Yellowhammer appeared from damp undergrowth, I suspect I'll see chicks soon but they won't stay around

Common Tern, South Esk estuary, Montrose

Sitting on a security camera, very apt

One of perhaps five Bottlenose Dolphins near Scurdie Ness, they swam downstream as the tide turned and started to rise

Common Blue Butterfly

Whitethroat. I only got one decent photo of this bird as it hopped around dense brambles, made worse as people walked by. Also a council worker arrived to spray giant hogweed which was in amongst the brambles. I know it's important to get rid of the hogweed but it would create a lot of disturbance to the Whitethroat and Linnets. Therein is the dilemma?

Lapwing juvenile, Lurgies

Meadow Brown Butterfly on the path at the Lurgies

Painted Lady Butterfly

Ringlet Butterfly

Giant House Spider - Eratigena species, there are three variants which can only be separated by their reproductive organs....

Seen in my garden while trying to photograph my Swifts, with an 800mm lens. That meant I had to photograph these caterpillars from 5 metres away. No idea so far to an ID

Unknown moth species, photo from my phone

Speckled Wood and Tiger Cranefly

I was without a PC for most of the week, so this group of photos spans many days starting with a few birds, then butterflies and insects. A surprise Speckled Wood on Saturday is the highlight for me, and my "resident" Sparrowhawk has kept the birds away. One of the Keptie Pond juvenile Herons posed on a raft and a Tiger Cranefly was photographed as it sheltered in the garden.

Two short video clips in UHD below

Speckled Wood Butterfly, in my garden        Migrant Hoverfly

Male Sparrowhawk in my garden, pretty sure the same one that's been around from last autumn

Also deterring the songbirds, a few Rooks, a Crow today, a Jackdaw and three cats filmed on a security camera most nights

This Heron looks brand new, I wonder if it's newly moulted or one of the two juveniles successfully fledged a week or more now, Keptie Pond, Arbroath

This photo confirms it's a juvenile

Tufted drake

Lesser black-backed Gull in what turned out to be a heavy shower

Back in my garden, a Tiger Cranefly Nephrotoma flavescens

A garden first! A Speckled Wood Butterfly

Underwing

Large White Butterfly, note the black wing edge curves around the corner, a Small White only on the top edge

Red Admiral

ObsIdentify was 100% sure this is a Willughby's Leafcutter Bee Megachile willughbiella

Migrant Hoverfly

Narcissus Bulb Fly

Buffish Mining Bee maybe...

Common Green Capsid Lygocoris pabulinus

Garden Bumblebee

Red-tailed Bumblebee

Buff-tailed Bumblebee, well worn

Speckled Wood, arty photo when compared to the ones at the start

The feathers of a young Sparrow in the garden, the following day the Sparrowhawk was plucking another on a fence post