A call from Brian asks if we fancy a trip over to Rainham, as a Woodchat Shrike has been seen there.
It's 1 pm so the trip turns out a lot longer than normal, it's only 18 miles from home but the traffic is heavy and that means we arrive after 2 o'clock.
We drive to ferry lane first in the hope we can get a view from there but we soon realize that is a mistake and we head off to the reserve and meet a young birder who tells us where to go as he has just seen the target bird.
It turns out that we have a long walk up past Target Pool to shooting buts hide. it is a rainy afternoon but not too bad, as we near where the bird is Tom B points to tell us the Shrike had just flown to a bush near to us, with bins and scopes out we are soon looking at a cracking year tick.
Swifts and Martins are in big numbers and I get another year tick when we see House Martin flying low over the water.
A nice little trip with a great bird and nice talking to a few local birders.
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| Woodchat Shrike |
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| A Whitethroat |
