Saturday 28 August 2010

Titterstone Clee - Wryneck and 200 up!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! After the intitial report last Sunday and despite good information, I spent a couple of hours concentrating that day on an area to the left of what turned out to be the 'feeding territory' today! An early start and teaming up with Yvonne, we may yet again have walked too far had this sight not stopped us abruptly in our tracks!






The awesome sight of a Wryneck sat on this dead Gorse branch about 30m away was not to last of course and off it flew into a dense patch of Gorse behind. We got the news out and then followed a long period of excitement interspersed with boredom - distant views coupled with disappearing acts before a crippling finale....

A female Hen Harrier was also busy quartering the landscape, nicely backlit.






I think I'll concentrate on the finale - cos I know you'll scroll there anyway!

Is it a bird? The reptilian appearance of the plumage is certainly quite striking when viewed from the rear!








Off in search of ants....






Looking good on the way.....








Can't decide which are my favourite crops from these so you'll have to endure more than one!












What better way to bring up the Shropshire life list '200' - there's a few more birds to come too which I should have had by now - but who cares, for now, I'll savour the Wryneck moment.....