14 April, Kensington Gardens, looking for owls.

Friend and colleague Cavan helped me find the owls and sent over this sequence of pictures of a Sparrowhawk taking a Starling under pressure from a crow. It came down low over our heads before taking it's prey about 20 metres from us. Pretty dramatic stuff and far superior to my efforts. In the middle photo you can see the Starling clearly and blood coming from its face. Pretty gory...

One of the adults having a scratch.

Two of the four owlets.

Having heard so much about the Tawny owls in Kensington Gardens and the owlets, I finally succumbed and paid a visit. Combining it with work, the paper seems to be increasingly fond of all things avian, it seemed a fair shout to give it a punt. I had pretty good directions and after about 15 minutes I found one of the adults and not long after four of the chicks. Glad I didn't leave it any longer to visit as the leaves on the trees (no pun intended) were growing by the minute and surely it will soon be difficult to locate them. It was a glorious afternoon and while watching the owls, Cavan spotted a Treecreeper on a near by tree and as mentioned above, a Sparrowhawk took a Starling very close by.