Dim and distant

Just a quick post. There have been very few opportunities to go birding recently, so a red-backed shrike at Thursley seemed too good an opportunity to miss. It was seen late yesterday and reported again today so I braved the M25 and slogged round to the Moat car park.
I could see probably 8 or 9 birders at the end of the raised walkway looking across to some trees so I yomped down there. By the time I got there it was approaching 11am and getting very warm. I could see a bird in a tree but it was distant and the haze was already starting to rise.

It was on a tree and quite mobile though within a limited area. It would perch, then dive down presumably grabbing food and return to one of the perches. It was too far even with a scope to see what prey it was having.
Occasionally it came a bit closer, but only really through a scope could you make out the plumage details.  It was a cracking male bird in breeding finery.Most birds seen in the UK, now we have lost our breeding population, are juveniles.

You can make out the salient points to its plumage though - the red-back, the bold eye-stripe and with a bit of imagination the dark, hooked bill. I didn't last long and trudged back home through the traffic. Hopefully the Autumn return migration should pick up in the next week or so and a few waders might pop up!!