Almost certainly a sparrowhawk, a female by the sounds of it. They're very common round my neck of the woods. I usually see one every day while I'm out with the dog and we've had one in the garden on quite a few occasions.

Sounds like a male Sparrowhawk.

They are reasonably common but thinly distributed - I see two or three a year round my garden in Withington

I live in Alkrington and I woke up this morning to find a big bird in my garden, it was holding what i think was a mouse or small bird in its claws, it was dark brown on its back and then really beautiful light brown on its chest. I googled it and found it to be a hawk, is this common around here? I get a lot of birds in my garden but nothing like this!! Please let me know, I want it to keep coming but not eat all my baby birds!!