One Shrike and I'm out!

Yesterday morning, through all the cold sweats and palpitations, I got my credit card out and spent some money!  I am the proud owner of a nice, new, shiny laptop, and this is my first blog entry using it.  It goes like stink!  Much quicker than my old one, which after five years of use, was gradually running like a dog with one leg.

So whilst spending time copying files and installing software onto it, news was filtering through of a female Red-backed Shrike in the Silverdale Country Park/Black Bank area.  A very pleasant interruption, lets have a look.

Only my second visit here, after looking at the juvenile Iceland Gull last christmas.  The bird was always rather distant along the fence wire, with digiscoping not that easy in an increasingly wet and windy afternoon.  It's also the second Staffs Red-backed Shrike pour moi, following the bird at Berry Hill in October 2006.

Onto Uttoxeter Quarry this morning.  Despite yesterday's Shrike, things are definitely quietening down for the summer now.  There were a few Common Terns around, a flock of 475 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (told you it was quiet!), and a selection of warblers which included a Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Common Whitethroats and 2 Reed Warblers.