Christine's walking & birds blog

Another warm and sunny day on the heaths, with five or so swallows hunting overhead making it feel like summer. As I ate lunch on a handy fallen pine, a field grasshopper landed a few feet away; possibly a female laying eggs. No doubt this would be an acceptable snack for the great grey shrike.....

.....chasing or being mobbed by half a dozen small birds (possibly goldfinches). I had a brief view through my bins of the shrike flying upwards like a cross against the blue sky, with the small birds skipping round excitedly and scolding it. A Dartford warbler was heard nearby.

A flock of siskins and redpolls was a nice sight near the stream; and a mistle thrush on top of a pine tree suddenly burst into fluting song - and just as suddenly stopped.

(Subsequent research: the shrike catches small birds, apparently, by flying up from below them and grabbing them by the leg; so presumably that's what this one was trying to do. I don't think it was successful. BWP states "predation on birds is rather exceptional" as it's not a particularly speedy flier.)