counting coots

So I've been discussing with much erudition waffling on about how there are a couple of Sparrowhawks in Fulham and that I reckon that they are juveniles but they are never very close so I can't be certain that there is breeding in the patch and that I was waiting or looking for a third bird right so that I could confidently state that there was breeding, yeah?

[pauses for breath]

Well yesterday lunchtime I was going through the exact same routine as the previous days (standing, watching, waiting).  And I was watching one Sparrowhawk, which was calling a lot, and I could hear another which also was calling a lot.  So far, so the same, so fine - I'm not complaining.  After a while there was some man made disturbance at the bottom of the tree that they had been sitting in.  I cynically hoped that perhaps this would make them fly, perhaps revealing the toid boid.  It didn't produce da toid boid. 

It produced FOUR!  Four bloody Sparrowhawks!

Patch gold, no doubt about it.  Four Sparrowhawks circling above me and proof of breeding (as far as I am concerned).  Nice.

Have some pictures (It was a bit dingy, so if I say that I was trying to do arty farty silhouette pictures I might get away with the distinct lack of quality).