Red-backed Shrike

ARC - 0915hrs - A good turn out of locals (doesnt anybody work these days, no wonder the country`s in such a state, blah, blah, blah...) for the first male Red-backed Shrike for ages. It performed well down by the pines catching large invertebrates, and being mobbed by Reed Buntings.

                                          Red-backed Shrike - once so common, now a rarity
Another good moth catch last night including the first migrant White-point of the season, and Fox Moth

                                          Fox Moth
Birdwatching Break, ARC - 1400hrs  - Three birders in for the week and off to a cracking start with  the male Red-backed Shrike near the pines showing well. Also here Peregrine, Hobby, Marsh Harrier and Kestrel, plus all the usual warblers, Cuckoo and Green Woodpecker. On the water, Little Egret, Redshank, Teal and fly-over Raven, Curlew and Common Tern.
Dungeness - 1600hrs -No sign of the Glaucous Gull at the boats. A few Sandwich Terns passing the point, plus a single Brent and distant Fulmar and Gannet.
Galloways - 1915hrs - Superb views of my first Turtle Dove of the year on the wires by Brett`s. Stonechats further round on the gorse and Little Owl on the chicken sheds.
From Springfield Bridge a Bar-headed Goose amongst its feral mates, more Marsh Harriers, Shelduck and Wigeon.

                                         Red-backed Shrike, ARC