Saturday - Thursley Common, Surrey

The weekend just gone was set aside for a family visit to my parents-in-law. Still on the hunt for a year tick I'd had my eye on the current overwintering Great Grey Shrike at Thursley Common. With my Bird Guides texts set to anything decent around the Hants/Surrey border I received a report that the Shrike was on 'Shrike Hill' mid morning. So after an early lunch I made the 10 mile journey to 'The Moat' car park and set off along the board walks and started the task of scanning anything that could hold a shrike above it. It wasn't going to be a easy. I eventually got across the bog, lots of it frozen, and to 'Shrike Hill' but had no joy in locating the bird. Best spots, or actually the only spots were 3 Green and 3 Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, 6 Fieldfare over and a flock of 13 Lesser Redpolls. A few Jays and a Mute Swan over made up the rest. I hung on into dusk in case any owls were about but none were. Annoyingly I got another text (later in the evening) of a Great Grey Shrike near my regular patch near Fleet - knowing my luck the same bird. Birding in Decembers tough!