Get on your knees!

In the photo is the hedgerow where Aulus grows. He looks very healthy––I guess the ditch, though now dry, held water for longer than some places.

The oak on the end of the hedge also looks good.

As I continued on, I saw a bird drop into the grass and heard an awful screeching. There were two magpies above and I wondered if one of their children had fallen out of a nest.

I ran, actually ran, and then the bird flew up into a tree. A raptor! I thought it was a kestrel who'd been mobbed by the magpies, then up flew a partridge and escaped. I felt bad to have lost the bird a meal and also realised that it had to be a sparrowhawk, not a kestrel.

It's interesting that hawks and falcons kill differently. This is the sequence I witnessed:

• The Pounce: Sparrowhawks rely on the element of surprise. They slam into their prey on the ground using their momentum to stun them, which is when the partridge started screaming.

• The 30-Second Struggle: Unlike falcons who kill instantly with a bite to the neck, sparrowhawks kill by constriction (clutching with their talons). A French partridge is a heavy, muscular bird. It takes a female sparrowhawk several minutes of intense struggling on the ground to overpower and suffocate a bird that size.

• The Quick Escape: Because I interrupted the struggle early, the partridge was only pinned, not incapacitated. The moment the hawk lifted its weight to retreat to the safety of the tree, the partridge’s survival instinct kicked in, and it burst into flight.

I still felt bad for the sparrowhawk. My clumsy interruption. I dropped to my knees on the path and asked forgiveness.

Back at the car, I saw a large man with a rather over-weight, elderly, and shorn terrier. He lifted the dog into the back of his car and gave her a bowl of water. His walking stick rested next to him. As the little dog drank, the man stroked her and I felt incredibly moved by the love.