Beautiful plumage.

Mark suffering from a sprained ankle today, after over enthusiastic training in the week , but he made it round the course - he's hard is my friend Mark. We had to briefly stop in Trafalgar Square when we saw a real bird of prey swooping in front of us . Ended up chatting to its owner who is employed to bring one of his Harris Hawks each day for 3 hours to scare off the pigeons. We were priviledged to watch a 20 month old male Harris Hawk at close quarters.

While most raptors are solitary, only coming together for breeding and migration, Harris's Hawks will hunt in cooperative groups (casts) of two to six. In one hunting technique, a small group flies ahead and scouts, then another group member flies ahead and scouts, and this continues until the prey is bagged and shared. In another, all the hawks spread around the prey and one individual flushes it out.

In the wild, Harris Hawks have been seen to indulge in "stacking" - sitting on each others backs, often up to three high, either on the ground or on the top of a cactus. It is not certain why they do this, though it has been suggested that it is a method of still hunting, giving them more height to see in desert areas, which do not have the benefit of trees or poles to sit on.

Continuing last week's music theme, I went to a brilliant gig by Anais Mitchell last night - if you haven't heard of her you should listen to her 2 albums - Hymns for the Exiled and The Brightness - http://www.myspace.com/anaismitchell - she is a fantastic story teller and has a brilliant and moving voice.

Below is a video I took last year of one of her perfomances - you can tell from how she moves her feet that the music really is within her.

Feets, don't fail me now ....