Correct Version now attached. Apologies.
A sparrowhawk in the garden at Friends of the Irish Environment on the Beara peninsula. Once almost extinct in Ireland, there are now 11,000 pairs after Rachael Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ (published 60 years ago this month) ended the use of the toxic chemical DDT. Like other birds of prey, the sparrowhawk was poisoned by feeding on prey that had eaten contaminated grain.

Photo Credit: Fern Lewis