Steppe Grey Shrike and Yellow-browed Warbler

Last Sunday, Dad took me up to North Norfolk to see the Steppe Grey Shrike at Burnham Norton. It was very foggy when we arrived, and light was pretty poor. You could the call of thousands of Pink feet flying overhead, but you just couldn't see them unless they were like 10 ft above you! Anyway...

...the Shrike was sitting in a bush about 60 yards from the path, so with the light, it was poor to photograph it.

There were several people that had twitched the shrike. Well over 50 people there.

After about half an hour, the Shrike came a bit closer, and showed the tameness this particular race obviously carries.

We then moved on to Stiffkey, and as this happened, I ran out of credit on my phone! DOH! This meant I couldn't see what was about. We just had to wing it. I saw though that there were some YBW's at Stiffkey, so thats where we headed...

We arrived at the Campsite Car park, and walked through the wood. We joined a group, who were alos looking for the YBW. I found after some extensive searching flitting about high in the canopy. We managed some decent shots...

We then went to see if we could find our own rarities at Garden Drove, Warham Greens, one of my favourite places. After walking down the track, all we saw was a Blackcap, a tit flock which contained nothing interesting and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. We called it a day here and headed home.

Monday and Tuesday produced a hall of birds due to the easterlies and rain. I couldn't believe because on Sunday, we were looking in a tree down Garden Drove. The next day, people saw with joy a Red-flanked Bluetail perched in it. NO WAY!!! If the winds had been a couple of days earlier, we would have seen tonnes of rarities. Going out this Sunday, fingers crossed things will linger, but I doubt it.

GARDEN/PATCH MEGA!!!!

At 14:00 yesterday, Dad had a Short-eared Owl over our garden, WHILE I WAS AT SCHOOL!!! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! What a bird that would've been to see. This was obviously a passing bird, but it was flying low over the road behind our garden. Jammy git (I'll calm down in a minute!)

Happy Birding :-)