MONDAY 5 JANUARY
A light frost followed by a few fog patches,
then a pleasant winter's day, with temperatures of around 6 degrees C and mostly
blue skies
First thing, all 5 BULLFINCHES were feasting
on white sunflower hearts in the CHAFFINCH HOUSE garden
After staking out a few other 'target birds'
and improving on previous photographs, I then concentrated my efforts in
relocating Mike Campbell's GREAT GREY SHRIKE at GROVE. Parking by the church and
lock, I ventured south along the west side of the Grand Union Canal to the
farmland 400 yards south of where the pylons cross the area - the area where MC
had seen the shrike on two occasions. But nothing - no sign of it - just 150
Fieldfare, 15 Redwing, 33 Linnet and a Sparrowhawk. I wandered further south
towards Slapton, checking both sides of the canal, but still no joy - a needle
in a haystack. Then bingo - a joyous Peter was walking back along the towpath -
he had espied the shrike just 10 minutes previous just NW of Slapton - result!
After 10 more minutes walking, I arrived at canal bridge 118 and there, across
the field to the east of the canal, was the GREAT GREY - sat in good view on the
telegraph wires. It remained on view for a few minutes before darting down into
the hedgerow, presumably to roost - at approximately SP 927 212 - well into
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE by about half a mile. Having been present for over a month, this
bird is particularly wide-ranging, the map below giving some guidance as to
where it has been seen during that time.
A PEREGRINE was roosting on a pylon as I
walked back north to the car.
