Sunday 6 July 2014

One of my Most WANTED Birds Ticked off! Also BIRD QUIZ - WEEK 18!!!

Last Sunday, Dad and I visited Winterton Dunes in the pouring rain to try and get to see one of my favourite birds for the first time - a Red-backed Shrike.

Driving up, it was chucking it down. We didn't have any waterproofs, jumpers, nothing. Just shorts and T-shirts. We parked up in the car park, and it was still raining. We waited in the car for about 30 minutes for the rain to clear, and then we got out.

We didn't really know where the bird was, we just knew it was by the highest dune. We kept looking for a really high dune, but didn't really succeed. We did see a lifer butterfly in the dunes though, and that was a Dark Green Fritillary!


Eventually, we found a high dune with really good habitat, so we gave it a scan. There were no other birders, so it was just us and our eyes....

Dad shouted out "there it is!" and within seconds I was looking out my first ever Red-backed Shrike. We started to get a bit closer, to try and get some decent pics, but it flew into cover. After another 5 minutes, it still hadn't reappeared,so we walked round the clump of brambles. We returned to the front side, and it was so close to us. What a bird...





Sorry about the quality - it was sooo windy!

It then disappeared again, so we moved on. We thought we would go and have a look at how the Little Tern's were doing, from a sensible distance of course. We got fantastic views of these delightful birds, where they flew feet above our heads. A great spectacle...


BIRD QUIZ - WEEK 18!!!
Last weeks mystery bird was indeed a Golden Eagle, which is the only one in England, which I saw at Haweswater Lake, Lake District several years ago.


Well done to Rob Stokes and Ellis Lucas for getting the correct answer. Unlucky to those who got it wrong but many thanks for having a go.

This week is a bit different. I'm going to test your butterfly skills. Here it is...


If you want to have a go, you can leave your answers in the comments, or you can DM me at Twitter to @MoysieBirder. 

Good Luck!

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