Blackdown Shrike Hunt

 News that the Great Grey Shrike was still at Blackdown, came as a bit of a surprise and having steadfastly ignored  it previously, I felt a trip was needed less I upset the Birding Gods! Having followed the Birdguides directions to the middle of nowhere😡 again!! We back tracked and parked at the Quell Lane car park, We parked up, kitted up and were then faced with a near vertical climb to the Temple of the Winds!!(some controversy here as I suggested that with the the steep climb in the bright sunshine we should lose a couple of layers, which was agreed, however by the time we got to the top, the sun had gone in and there was an icy wind!! This was my fault apparently😏)  Obviously I trotted up like a young Mountain Goat, Margie struggled bless her so I graciously took plenty of stops and even faked gasping for breath to make her feel better, that's just how I roll!!😁 The views from the top are well worth the climb and we were serenaded by a Robin while we admired them and recovered our breath!

Robin singing from the top of the tallest tree!

View from the top (Phone pic)

Nice to see the Gorse starting to bloom, be full on in a couple of weeks (Margie Pic)

Margie's pics of the view below!

 We walked through the trees out onto the Heathland, straight away we had a couple of Stonechats having a barney and the scratchy singing of a Dartford Warbler, with a Shrike to find we did spend the time required to get a decent pic!!

Stonechat

Dartford Warbler

Several Linnets singing as well!

We wandered about, had 3 Woodlark singing, but off the highest tree and the light was harsh!! A Buzzard circled, more Linnets and Stonechats and plenty of great views!

Woodlark

Buzzard

Stonechat

We carried on wandering, went round a corner, boom!!! Great Grey Shrike, gave great views for a couple of minutes before tree-hopping into the distance!! Few pics below

We attempted to follow it, but it had retreated off the main paths, so gave it up and headed back, we ran into another couple of birders and gave them the best directions we could hopefully they got on it!

Were quite a lot of people about now mostly Dog Walkers, we must have seen 30 odd and despite the signs about cattle and ground nesting birds only one was on the lead, and one group of about 6 people had at least 10 dogs between them most of which were rampaging through the heather and gorse and jumping in the ponds, think if that is a normal day, I would imagine it is going to be difficult for any birds  to produce young!!😢

Some nice Ponds on the heath as well! Pics by Margie

With the cold starting to bite we headed back to the viewpoint, going down the slope was a lot easier than going up!! Until!! Yes you've guessed it Cows!! 5 blooming great Belted Galloways right in the middle of the path, with the gate tantalizingly close and the alternative a slog back up the hill, I girded my loins and edged around them!! Margie got some pictures of the action below, though suspiciously she accidently missed my incredible bravery!! Accidently yeah right!!! (Margie says that I was moving to fast to get a picture!!) 😱😲

Interesting log!

The beasts

Stump 

Fairy grotto according to Margie😏

Having made it back to the car we headed home!

Quick mention of yesterday, from the Sofa, the Male Sparrowhawk reappeared in our Garden also a visit from a Rook filling it's boots on some Peanuts I'd emptied out when I changed the feeder!

Male Sparrowhawk

Rook

They are a strange looking beast close up!!