Great Grey Shrike - Brimpton 12Nov15

After several extremely frustrating failed attempts a week or two ago, I finally managed to get a glimpse of one of the UK's rarest winter visitors - a Great Grey Shrike. A lifer for me!

A big thank you to the Bracknell birders who helped provide much needed directions. I parked up at the Rowbarge Pub in Woolhampton and walked around the west side of the Gravel Pits. The bird has quite a large territory and currently it is using the fields and hedges just north of Wasing Road, Brimpton.

It was initially spotted on the power lines and then started hunting in the fields, resting atop a Hawthorn bush, where I managed to get this picture. There was very poor light this afternoon, which is fairly typical of November in the UK!

Whinchat on Migration

It was a really nice Autumn day today, so I popped up onto Greenham Common in search of the Yellow Wagtails which were reported on Berks Birds yesterday.

Although there were no signs of the Wagtails, I was delighted to spot a pair of Whinchats feeding in small gorse bushes, just on the western edge of the runway.

Whinchats are migrating back to Africa and are passing through Berkshire from their breeding ground in northern and western England.

Male Redstart on Greenham Common (Sep 2015)

After spending over a frustrating hour and a half today, looking in vain for Wheatears, I finally got lucky and spotted this beautiful male Redstart. It was showing really well, flying down, catching insects, then returning to the same fence post where it sat for quite some time.

Redstarts are beautiful birds and I feel privileged to see one, on its Autumn migration back to Africa, from the breeding areas in Wales and the west country.

The bird was sat right on a post of the perimeter fence surrounding the bird ringing area on the western side of Greenham Common.

The pictures (left) were taken with a Canon 7D Mark II, with a Canon 300mm F2.8 IS II lens and a 1.4x extender - making 420mm focal length. This combo takes great pictures, although I probably would have done slightly better with the 2x extender, as the bird was about 80 feet away.