At last! A Sparrowhawk in the valley. Lanjaron 18th September 2009

 Friday morning...and there was something odd going on the terraces around the house today. Most of the usual suspects were, I thought, around as normal but there was a sense of unrest about everything. I counted first one, then two, three and maybe a fourth Spotted Flycatcher, but their "tzick...tzick" alarm calls had a tense feeling of "high alert" about them. Then the penny slowly dropped. No Serin, no Goldfinches...even the House Sparrows were surprisingly quiet.

The Sardinian Warblers had fallen off the grid completely, I could hear that familiar scolding, rattling call but they had all but disappeared from view. Weird. 

I walked round the side of the house and in a flash everything made sense. Sparrowhawk! Swooping silently into a Walnut tree beside me, so close it was if I could have reached out and touched it. Immaculate female plumage, clean slate grey with pencil-line fine barring across her chest, pale eye stripe and broad dark bands under her tail...she looked at me for a second through one bright yellow eye and darted off as swiftly as she had arrived. Finally! My first ever in Spain, and a brand new raptor for the year list. Fabulous.

Fabulous for me, that is... rather more of a problem for the garden's songbird community! They are one of the more frequently seen birds of prey back in the UK, occurring in parks, larger gardens and even city centres, but despite what would seem to be perfect local habitat and a resident breeding range that covers the whole of Spain for some reason they've eluded me until today. Definitely a bird from the top of the "so where exactly are they?" list. I'd never have believed it if I had been told I would arrive in the Alpujarras and wait this long for a Sparrowhawk. I wonder if there is some seasonal local movement that means we may see more of them through the winter months. I look forward to finding out.

We had great views of the local male Kestrel through the afternoon, calling loudly from the far side of the valley, and slowly as the day progressed the finches, warblers and other songbirds started to show again after the Sparrowhawk incident. Later, a familiar "cronk...cronk" had me looking skywards and a Raven flapped effortlessly across the valley, slowing for some plunging display swoops over the cliff-face opposite, calling loudly all the way. It's the first time I've seen one of these huge crows below the village. A juvenile perhaps, relocating and looking for its own territory after leaving its parents higher up in the mountains. I think the crags down here deserve a Raven, and I hope it stays on. As always, we'll keep you posted....