Decided to try late on to go for the Great Grey Shrike that had been reported for the last 2 days here.
Arrived on site at around 3:40 and met a guy from Nature England? who said that he was working in cooperation with the farmer here to manage his land for wildlife, pointing out a Beetle Bank which is where the farmer leaves a strip of land on the edge of the field for the birds to eat the seeds off over the winter, this obviously works as there was several large flocks of Linnet around including one 400+! Walking west towards the pools at the bottom a Kestrel flew out of the tree there and we started scanning the hedges where the Shrike had been seen earlier in the day. No luck here and a quick scan of the lakes where a Little Egret had been seen earlier only produced 2 Mute Swan and 6 Mallard. Walking south along the track bumped into Paul from previous Upton work parties also looking out for the Shrike, a Yellowhammer flew off and a Stonechat was in the hedge. Standing in the corner searching the hedges didn't produce any sign of the Shrike and with the light fading and a bitterly cold wind we called it a day. Great Grey Shrike is now officially a bogey bird for me! Tried to connect with this species more times than I can remember must be easily double figures now! Will try again tomorrow or Sunday if I get time, fingers crossed!
Hi Tim good blog mate. Interested in the beetle bank. There are a lot of birds there mate. Only 3 miles from my house will check it out over time. I should have met you there this am. Give it a go tomorrow
ReplyDeletecheers John Belsey. You need to update your upton pic to include your island.
It looks really interesting, I bumped into Paul down there (not sure of his last name poss Croft? from work parties 2 dogs blues fan didnt come to the last work party)
ReplyDeleteand he said that the area should be good for little and Barn owl and the farmer said that they get Grey Partridge, also Redshank breeding on the pools there.
Hopefully i'll get up there again tomorrow i'll see.
True i'll get a photo in spring when theres avocet nesting on it :D