My Hobby but no horse!

Just had to share my joy at spending half an hour watching a wonderful hobby from the PickUp hide at Fairburn last week. This was a first for me and this bird gave an outstanding display hunting over the pools and along the ridges It moved so fast!! It was great to see the way it caught dragon flies then proceeded to eat them on the wing. It even managed this once while seeing off the possy of mobbing magpies who had actually caught up with the hobby. It was bit like a hare and hounds scene- dogged magpies in formation chasing but never gaining on this ace flying acrobat. On another occasion he was grappling with a sparrow hawk talon to talon as neither seem to like each other much but it made fantastic and fascinating viewing. Whilst at Pick up hide I was also treated to a glide by from a young marsh harrier and a king fisher came and perched for a few seconds in the reeds directly in front of the hide--is it just me who is lucky but i seem to be seeing as many kingfishers as i do common birds like mistle thrushes. Lovely morning at Fairburn and i must give credit as the place is so much more litter(and dog faeces) free and welcoming these days. i hope the hobby hangs around long enough for me to catch him again this week!