Nifty Shades of Grey

With Steffi having a day off, and good weather forecast, we decided to make a day of it and head inland to the moors around Coed Llandegla forest. The main reason was to get Steffi a tick in the shape of a black grouse, and hopefully clean up on some other moorland species. Arriving at the puzzlingly titled Worlds End, we parked up and took a stroll along the road, scanning the moors either side. All was quiet, except for a lone skylark, and after an hour or two so our initial optimism started to fade. We took a track across some land and I stopped to scan the hillside opposite, picking up a female black grouse - unfortunately Steffi had walked on and by the time I got her attention and she made it back to point where she could view the bird, it had crept into deep cover. We hung around but to no avail. Deciding to take another track, we pushed on further into the moor, flushing a male red grouse along the way. Suddenly Steffi picked up a movement by some scattered conifers and uttered those lovely words - 'is that a great grey shrike?' Sure enough, sat atop a tree, looking resplendent in the sunshine was a gorgeous butcher bird. Luckily she managed to grab some shots as it flitted from tree top to tree top, all the while heading away from us, finally vanishing from view as it headed east down the valley.

Having had our fair share of luck, we figured we could head over to Coed Llandegla, grab some lunch and have a stroll round the trees to see if we could add some woodland birds to the days list. As it turned out, the denizens of the forest were playing hard to get, but at the view point on the forest edge, which overlooks another chunk of moorland, there, in a distant clearing amongst the heather, was a very relaxed, feeding male black grouse. Even at distance, that classic shape, bright white undertail, long tail feathers and glossy blue/black colour made it stand out. We watched it for 20 minutes before it ambled off into cover; happy with our days work we too ambled home, doing the obligatory call in at a farm shop, something Steffi finds impossible not to stop at to purchase very tasty, but expensive, cheeses.