Last week Rob Cross and I drove to Wiltshire to look for a Red-backed shrike which had been showing very well for a considerable time, after a 3 hour drive we arrived at the site to find a thick mist making spotting any bird very difficult. We spent most of the day trudging around, managing to hear the bird on two occasions and one very brief sighting, we left the site feeling very deflated with no photos to show for our efforts. We believe the bird left that day as no other sightings have been reported since.

Today we decided to go for another special bird, a hoopoe has been showing well at Sand point, Somerset so that was to be our target species. We arrived at about 8.30 am and there was already a small crowd of birdwatchers and photographers present. We set up and waited close to the group that had already formed when I saw the bird fly over our heads and away from us, a few minutes later the bird returned and this time landed. All the people present eventually got shots and views of the bird. The bird was totally at ease with all the attention and carried on searching in the grasses for food. We carried on taking photos which was quite challenging due to the fact that the bird decided to stay amongst the long grass to search for its food. After a few more hours the group had got larger and the bird kept taking to the air and moving farther away, it was at this point we decided to leave the bird in peace.

We then went on to Aust Wharf with the hope of seeing SE Owls again, this time our luck was out but it gave us a chance to catch up and have a chin wag with some of our Flickr contacts. 

Alll in all another very good day!