Gutsy

Seeing the swallows on the wires I thought I would take some lovely peaceful shots of the families gathering there. All was going well till a sudden high tweet sent them all shooting off in different directions. 

Looking up there was a bird of prey closing fast and two gutsy little swallows harassed and bombed it into the distance. This was followed almost immediately by what I thought was the same bird circling round and now being hotly pursued by three or four swallows defending their chicks.

Getting the pictures up on the computer the first bird turned out to be a hobby (see Extra) and the furore must in turn have flushed out an adult sparrowhawk which kept circling round at a distance from me but being harassed high in the sky by tiny swallows. Extra flushed sparrowhawk.