Sparrowhawks and spiders webs

I don't take my camera with me when I'm leading a birdwatching walk because I don't want to be distracted away from guiding the walkers and searching for birds! This morning though, I wished I had my camera with me, for as I was walking along the road to the meeting point, the fences and gates of the gardens were all hung in sparkling spiders' webs. It was a beautiful sight....

Later there were more spiders webs draping the gorse bushes on the top of Corstorphine Hill where we were walking.

It was very misty this morning, which added a wonderful atmosphere - the autumnal trees of the wooded areas of the hill look even more beautiful in the mist. It isn't ideal for spotting birds though! We were hearing birds much more easily than seeing them, though eventually we did see the large flock of long tailed tits that we heard whispering all around us as we walked.

As we stepped out of the woodland onto an open area of grass, we heard a call up in the air. I identified it as a sparrowhawk so we waited for a while and sure enough it soon swept into view, followed closely by several agitated carrion crows. The hawk flew to the top of a tree and settled down, seemingly unbothered by the fact that the crows all sat themselves in a circle round about! Then at some signal we weren't aware, of the birds all flew off and we made our way back into the woodlands to continue our walk.