A sparrow falls

Scene: I'm indoors watching well over a dozen sparrows joyously going about their morning business on the patio. It's bathtime: three or four sparrows splashing in the bird bath, a couple in the small saucers of water and six crammed into the terracotta shell bath (didn't think it could hold that many), plus a few others feeding on the fatball container.  I glance away, and suddenly a dark shape flashes by the window; when I look out again, the sparrows have scattered and the female sparrowhawk is standing on the patio with a dead sparrow under her claws.  We eye each other for a few seconds; I don't want to watch what will happen next, so I make a movement which makes her fly away, taking her lunch with her.  She's certainly an quick and efficient killer, and I expect the sparrow didn't know what had hit it; at least I didn't have to deal with the remains.  Actually we've had a very low casualty rate this year, at least in terms of corpses to bury.  Several birds have flown into the windows, as always happens, but all seem to have bounced off with nothing worse than a sore head.  There have only been two burials: a fledgeling blackbird in early summer, and a little vole found on the lawn just the other day.  The blackbird was found ailing at the bottom of the garden with no obvious injuries; we tried to help in a hamfisted sort of way, but it died a couple of hours later and was buried under a blackcurrant bush whose fruit it would have enjoyed if it had lasted a few weeks longer.  The little vole - perhaps the little fellow who has been living in the compost bin? - was much smaller and easier to deal with; I put him in a shallow scrape under ivy in the bottom hedgerow.

First colour on the spindle tree

Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn'

Autumn is drawing on, with the first storm of the winter (windy rather than very wet), leaves starting to sprinkle the lawn, and the spindle tree beginning to turn red.  Temperatures are dropping, particularly at night (9.3C is the current low in the greenhouse), although today was pleasantly warm and sunny (lunch outdoors).  It's becoming more difficult to find flowers for cutting in the garden, although Phlox 'White Admiral' is still (rather too) bright, Sedum 'Herbstfreude' is just colouring and there are still dahlias coming (though they haven't done too well this year; in too shady a spot, I think).  The pink Japanese anemone is petering out.  There are a few cyclamen under the holly tree - not as many as usual, must do something about that - a nice patch of borage by the new terrace, and Viburnum 'Dawn' is in flower already.  There are also a few odd blooms here and there, such as some late flowers on the astrantia, but overall there's not too much flower colour in the garden.  It has been a good year for berries, though.

Cyclamen hederifolium

Elderberries

The pak choi and some of the dill have been planted out in the vegetable garden, with beer traps for the slugs alongside; these have indeed filled up with dead molluscs, and the seedlings have survived so far without damage, so I think I may have found at least some sort of solution to the problem!

Despite the few flowers available, there are still some butterflies about - three red admirals and one each of large white, speckled wood and comma.  And a big dragonfly zooming around the other day.  There are plenty of smaller flies as well; the swallows and house martins have been feeding overhead, and we've had visits at dusk from a little bat which is presumably finding plenty to eat as well.