Great Grey Shrike & Bewick's Swan in Durham: 4 January 2014

With the family dropped off at the Beamish Open Air Museum, I had about four hours to kill birding in Co. Durham, so I whizzed down the A1 to Bradbury where a Great Grey Shrike had been showing on and off for a week or so.  Often elusive and flighty, it took me over half-an-hour to locate it, perched on hawthorns in a rough field NE of the railway bridge.  I watched it for about 15 minutes as it just hung around, saw it regurgitate a pellet and managed a few digiscoped record shots, before it flew south across the road and out of sight. 

Great Grey Shrike. Bradbury (Durham). 4 January 2014.

I then headed down to Sadbergh where an adult Bewick's Swan and three Whooper Swans had taken up residence in a flooded field just north of the village.  The swans were easily located and good scope views had of all four.  Unfortunately the poor light meant that my digiscoped images came out fuzzy!  Back up to Beamish were the woodland around the car park produced Common Crossbill, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Goldcrest.  Back home in the North Tyne Valley a Tawny Owl in the village this evening brought my 2014 year list to 91 species.  Not too bad after four days...