Sunday 4 October 2009

We arranged to meet up with Duncan & Tara today and their request went something like this… “We want to go here, there, oh and can we go there… and we want to see the Wryneck and the Woodchat Shrike too”... To which my response was something like… “You don’t want much do you?”. I have to say I was a little concerned and under some pressure at this stage. The morning started off relaxing. We did quite a few miles visiting different places and as we were getting closer to the Woodchat Shrike and Wryneck search I was getting worried and said to them “you know, I think we’ll be lucky to see one of the two”… no response :-) To my relief as soon as we arrived at St Levan and got out of the car Duncan spotted the Wryneck sitting proud in the top of a tree! We got a few pics before it disappeared. We split up and after about 10 minutes, Trevor returned with some shots on his camera, which confirmed he had found it, and promptly lost it again! After a long, long wait, wandering around and then sitting on wet grass waiting for a miracle, Trevor and another bird watcher who was on holiday spotted it again, but we had no idea until we heard the guy whistle (which has now been named the BW’s whistle!). It was showing very well today and we had some great opportunities to take pictures. One down and one to go! We arrived at Nanquidno to find three birdwatchers who said that the Shrike was showing well and pointed us in the right direction. It was, but it soon disappeared over a hedge. Tara went off in search and we waited patiently at the same position it had first been spotted and then we heard a whistle... Tara! She was on it and moving in! What a relief. Little did we know that we were to meet up with someone who put us onto a Snow Bunting, which we found immediately in the position given. Another life tick and a great end to a great day. My images are not good of the Bunting so I’m hoping Trevor, Tara and Duncan have some nice ones - I really enjoyed today and my day list was "60" Duncan :-)

Tara just before she located the Woodchat Shrike...
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