A great day... Woodchat Shrike

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Had a great day. Met some nice people along the way, had two life ticks, and maybe more once I have ID'd them (that's the tricky bit - especially with me!). The Abbot decided I needed to beat my day list total today. Not sure what motivated him to this conclusion... Maybe he thought I needed motivating, with me slowing down lately! Anyway, cutting a long story short (as I don't have time to go though it all, list my day list and check my pics etc) my day list was 65. Had we gone to Par on the way home and seen a Coot, it would have been my highest day list so far!!! Sorry, Abbot. The Woodchat Shrike should make up for it. When we arrived an Nanquidno we were not prepared for what followed (the scope was left in the car!). I met a chap on the lane who said the Shrike had been seen at lunchtime, so off we went looking for it. No luck, so we sat on the cliffs for a while and watched a couple of Stonechats. Then I heard a call, which no-one could mistake - Choughs. Two of them. They are expert flyers for sure! We went back to look for the Woodchat Shrike and met up with Graham - a really nice bloke. After waiting a while the prize arrived. Thanks to Graham for letting us have a look through his scope. I took a couple of distant shots and then it was spooked. I spotted it on a stabilising wire and we were back on it. Spooked again and into a more distant pine tree. The shots are my usual "terrible", but I had to put them up!


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I have cut/zoomed on the above to this...!

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