A grey day made great (twice over)

As I was driving home at the weekend a flash of something above and to my right caught my attention. I pulled up to see a bird fly into some distant trees.

I didn’t see it clearly but the contrast of black and white was instantly familiar. It could only have been a Grey Shrike. It took a little while but it eventually reappeared. It was a Great Grey Shrike.

Finding a perch free of the wind it fed on wasps and flies hovering around flowering ivy; one of many Great Grey Shrikes to make landfall on the east coast recently.

Postscript: While I was having my breakfast yesterday a Great Grey Shrike dropped into the Garden here at Falcon Cottage. With an entourage of mobbing Bramblings it didn’t stay long… but just long enough to get itself onto my garden list!