Bird activity question

Yesterday I saw a couple of birds in the sky and couldn't work out what they were up to. One looked like a pigeon, the other was a smaller dark bird (difficult to see details as they were high up and sun was very close. The smaller dark one seemed to be mobbing (if you can use the term with one bird!) the pigeon. If it were the other way around I could think that a pigeon was trying to scare off a starling from its nest... The silly thing was that the pigeon was going around in circles rather than flying off. I wondered if I was mis-seeing the pigeon and that it was in fact a hawk of some sort but it really looked like a pigeon, hawks are usually easy to spot shape-wise!!! Any idea?


Confused of Southcote:confused:

Sounds like a Raptor of some sort, a pigeon would simply fly off, but Raptors like Buzzards and Red Kites will try and evade the mobbing whilst still continuing with their spiral path. :)

I caught a raptor ( sparrohawk I think ) going like the clappers after a smaller bird. I did get a shot but it was so fast they were too small to see in the photo. who was what. Rather fascinating.
Chocky