Sunday 14 March 2010

Great Grey Shrike at Waddington fell...

The last day of my week's break, saw myself and my dad up at Waddington fell near Clitheroe for the Great Grey Shrike. The bird had been showing for the past few days just north of the Moorcock inn on neighbouring bushes and telephone wires. On arrival, we were greeted by a layby of birders looking up towards the top of the hill to our left. Sure enough, there was the Great Grey shrike sat on top of a hawthorn bush some 200 yards up the hill. However, the telephone wires where the bird had originally been reported for the last few days, was now occupied by a team of a clay-pigeon shooters. Now come on, what excitement is there in that? Seemingly the bird wasn't hanging round in that area as you can guess..

Watched the bird for half an hour or so as it made its way down the dry-stone wall and eventually came close-enough to get a record shot of the bird. A couple of flight views were nice showing the black and white patterns on the wings.. Something I had never seen before suddenly happened, the bird started to hover like a Kestrel and dropped down onto a conifer.. Stunning bird an a good yeartick.

Moved on to Stocks reservoir where we had distant views of Red grouse on the moors and a ringtail Hen harrier searched the nearby heather moorland. Nothing much else seen that day but 3 yearticks was pretty decent..
{Look at the top of the wall and that's where the bird was at first}

Back to uni tomorrow at 6am for a couple of weeks hard work and then off for easter.. Bring on the spring..

Next post is unbelievable, a miracle must have occured that day!!

2 comments:

  1. Like the post... My favourite picture is of the wall where the bird was!!! I might start doing that! Travelling far and wide taking pictures of Bushes and Fields... I can think of a few fence posts too! :-)

    Thanks for the Mention in the other post. Absolutely can't wait for this unbelievable blog post!

    Pete had Great grey in his garden again!!! Mental!

    Catch you soon,

    C

    ReplyDelete
  2. Craig,
    Thanks for your advice on the photos etc: Infact I too can think of a few posts around Blackpool. However, where the bird was first originally seen by myself, I thought I would include a picture just to show how distant it was.

    No problems about the mention chap and the next post is unbelievable believe me! Another Great grey, mental or what?

    See you soon, cheers chris..

    ReplyDelete