What bird of prey did i see?

[AceOfHearts]

Today after walking around my shooting permission I was packing up in one of the old barns on the land. There was a great racket and i shone the torch up to see a bird of prey sitting about 15 metres from me. I saw it quite well (albeit under red light) and then it flew off.

I am not too hot on my birds of prey, but looking online it looked to me like a sparrowhawk, but bigger than what the pictures suggest.

I would say that sitting on its perch it was about 30 - 40 cms high, and almost the same length again for its long tail. What would this of been? It had a similar 'face' to a sparrowhawk (if you know what i mean?) and was quite heavily patterned on its body and tail.

I am in Bedfordshire as well if that makes any difference?

Sorry for the long winded post with no real benefit but i love watching birds of prey and thought it would be a good opportunity to learn some more about them

[duncancallum]

Common Buzzard?

On my phone or I'd post a pic

[y2blade]

Goshawk or buzzard would be my guess without you saying anything about colouration or wing/tail shape.

[driverrob]

Like this, a Sparrow hawk outside my back window a few years ago:

[Boshly]

Young Red kite with a tail like that? Would be different colouring to a sparrow hawk and considerably bigger if adult?