Sunday 8 January 2012

Black Hill - Blue Sky - Great Grey Shrike

A colourful introduction to a much more pleasant stroll on Black Hill than yesterday - in warm afternoon sunshine! The weather helped but what made it even more pleasant was the unmistakable sight of a Shrike as I arrived at the clearfell, some 150m distant (A sight for sore eyes, no matter how far away). A record shot followed – Great Grey Shrike!



There is only one way to watch/capture a bird like this – sit tight, watch what it's doing and wait! All good things will come and whilst I was never in with a chance of feather detail, I’ll settle for these as it came probably as close as it was comfortable with!

The first shots were reminiscent of another local, much twitched bird!



Before I settled down and waited, eventually it used the telegraph posts I hoped it would?





The closest encounter...



In case you were wondering what it was finding for food, there seemed to a few less Queen wasps hereabouts!



At least that saves me having to give Burrow Hill fort a going over!