Neighbourhood watch rumbles the raptor

Sandy Bedfordshire: The starlings' tip-off came, a burst of chirping - and there was the sparrowhawk, overhead, wings swept back

All through this summer the best birdwatchers around have alerted me to the appearance of a sparrowhawk in the neighbourhood. Had I been a small bird I would have died eight or nine times since March, for, each time, I failed to see the predator coming.

It happened again the other morning in the market square: the tip-off came, as surely and identifiably as a personalised text message call on a mobile, a clear high volley of tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick calls.