The Summer Sun... Birds Do Fly

Yesterday mornin' I look out at the garden. A brown bird flies in and stands on the bean frame. I can see only part of its back and tail and think it be a blackbird... but it looks too big somehow.
I look again. It's a female sparrowhawk, calm as you like, sitting and looking to see what she can see. Quick as a flash she flies off into the next garden.

Later, we drive out.... and pass a field of hay being cut.
In the sky above I see a spiraling tower of buzzards riding the thermals.... eight in all I count.
Eight.