Great Grey Shrike and Beetle

Hot footing it from Scandinavia the Great Grey Shrike is a regular but very scarce visitor here and when the word gets out amongst the twitchers to find it, it is a must see.

Looking across the undulating forest of coniferous trees I thought, no knew it was going to be a bit of a yomp with a long lens so opting for the small but versatile 400 which I knew I could carry, I set off over the paths round the cleared felled areas. It wasn't long before I saw someone and they hailed that they had seen it in the dip but it had flown into the trees over the top of the hill. That is without me saying anything at all - not even an hello! Obviously a camera says a thousand words :) 

Patience was the key and in the end it flew out onto a tree - at a distance, perching to hunt. The shrike is well known for impaling it's food on a spike as it's larder but in this shot on close up I discovered it had a stag beetle in it's mouth. The scientific name of the shrike means 'sentinel butcher' for obvious reasons.

Terrifically pleased that I managed to see it and well worth the hours of waiting as it always excites me when what you have waited so long to see actually arrives!