Great Grey Shrike, Deenethorpe, Northamptonshire ....... the Butcher Bird.

How often do I raise the subject of being in the right place at the right time. 

When I pitched up at Burn Coppice today at mid-day I met a gentleman doing an impersonation of an ice cube who had been searching the area on foot for a couple of hours with no success in a bitter cutting wind, we exchanged pleasantry's and he departed.

My tactic was to sit in the car and wait for the bird to come to one of its favoured perches, so I parked up with good panoramic views of the trees along the bridleway and waited in the car ...... twenty minutes later the bird appeared on top of a medium sized tree.

A bit distant for my 420mm f4 lens combination so these images are cropped and sadly the bird was also backlit.

My heart goes out to the unlucky gent. who I had met, I've been in his shoes and its not a pleasant experience to dip after investing time and energy into an objective ..... this was my third visit, the first two being unsuccessful.