The weather remains grey and cold and there were some damp patches in the blustery, cloudy but mainly dry morning.
I went to Iping Common to see if I could find the Great Grey Shrike that's been present most of the Winter, the same bird I had a brief view of in November. Shrikes are enigmatic birds, both visually attractive and quirky in their behaviour. The Great Grey Shrike is a winter visitor in the UK, with normally three or four birds turning up in the south to hold a wide ranging territory on a common or heath for the Winter but can be quite tricky to find.
Walking out from the car park 4 Lesser Redpoll flew over calling and a small group of 6 Reed Bunting were disturbed. As with many heather and gorse commons at this time of year there were virtually no birds, just dogwalkers. A Green Woodpecker was seen and then a Dartford Warbler made it's buzzy call before briefly popping up on top of a gorse bush before disappearing.
I'd completed a circuit and ended up back in the Car Park with and met up with Colin and Mich, who I walked around with again, we saw another Dartford Warbler, then a pair of Stonechat and just when I was thinking of heading back to the car the Great Grey Shrike was seen on top of a distant birch in the far corner of the common. It flew about 100 yards, but no nearer and just as the scopes were lined up it flew again and headed south over the pines. Well, it was a marginal improvement on the November sighting but nice to be out on a fresh Tuesday morning.
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