Green Sands and Great Grey Shrike! 18-19 Feb 2017

An early morning saw Jess, Olive and I get a McD's adventure breakfast and head to Peterstone-Super-Ely in what can only be described as a pea-souper. We met Nick and Tara in the lay-by as planned at 8, and we made our way along the river, seeing a dipper as we went. After an initial wrong turn we stumbled across a large flock of redpoll, with several others mixed in, including siskin, nuthatch, goldcrest and goldfinch. The light hadn't picked up at all however, so no good photos were had.









Near the hairpin in the river one flew off to the next bend, and we saw it fly a couple of times, never managing to see him on the ground. The banks in the area showed obvious signs of sand martins and I can't wait to come back here later in the year for hobby and sand martin!

On the way back from Sunday dinner at Paul and Kate's in Hereford I took Jess and Olive to Crabtree Hill in Forest of Dean for round 2. As soon as we came out of the forestry at Crabtree I could see the Shrike perched up a long way off in a little conifer, like a bauble on a Christmas tree - my first ever views of GGS, and I knew what I was seeing instinctively before getting it confirmed by getting a little closer.


 The shrike ended up on the middle strip where we had perched a couple of weekends before, and where we saw a gent exit  the undergrowth (obviously now in hindsight, having been sat waiting for the shrike to arrive!). The sun came out and I had a few minutes with the bird to myself, sat proudly in the open. I could see a family approaching in the background, and I waited for them to come closer on the off chance it would fly closer to me. I looked down at the camera for 3 seconds, and when I looked up, it was gone. A magic bird, and a magic end to Rob VS GGS.

112 year to date after this weekend.