The section of the Trent and Mersey Canal from Great Haywood down to Fradley Junction has been well travelled by us over the years, since long before Song & Dance’s travels. There’s nice countryside down to Rugely, then an interesting if built up section through the town, then Armitage and Handsacre, before becoming rural again through Kings Bromley. It’s always interesting to see what Armitage Shanks have been making: sometimes their works is knee deep in pallet loads of wash hand basins, sometimes toilets, sometimes bidets.

For as long as we could remember, somewhere along the long line of back gardens open to the canal through the three towns, there were two adjacent gardens with aviaries, and invariably, a sizeable hawk sitting on a perch watching the world go by. But we were always past before we knew it. Last time, we made a point of noting it was in Handsacre, so after negotiating the troublesome single file ex-tunnel near there, the camera was ready…

We think this chap is a Red Tailed Hawk a.k.a. a Chickenhawk, but could be wrong. Alternative suggestions on a blue beer token to the usual address please…