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Tuesday, 10 August 2010 Today Matthew and I were in the garden playing tennis, we spotted a strange bird sitting on a ledge on one of the houses at the back of our garden.
We ran to the laptop and looked up the RSPB web site in Northern Ireland and on checking the birds of prey we thought the bird was a sparrowhawk. We took several photo's of the bird and sent them to Joanne Cathcart at the RSPB in Belfast.
This morning we received this reply:- Many thanks for your photos – I forwarded this to a couple of my colleagues and we all agree that it is a sparrowhawk.

The sparrowhawk is one of the smallest birds of prey in Europe. Today it is one of the most frequently encountered birds of prey. The female is twice the weight of the male and has 20% bigger wing span. Interestingly, while the female takes prey up to pigeon size, the male doesn’t catch anything bigger than the mistle thrush.

Perhaps you’ll see it again!
We have lived in Bangor for quite a number of years and this is the first time we have spotted a bird of prey - usually blackbirds, magpies or the seagulls.
It was something different anyway and got a little excited - Well done Matthew!
Posted by Hma Anderson at 17:51