a Two Shrike afrenoon

On Monday 5th October, I was able to take my deferred early leave off, so by 3pm I was driving home and collecting the optical gear. Closer to 4pm, I parked in the car park of the Kessingland caravan park, bumping into Dick on the way and armed fresh directions and seeing Kevin B at the Pit, walked further south and along the first part of the cliff bordering the field and the excellent Steppe Shrike was seen at 180 metres distance. It was perched a top a field hedge and moved a little nearer to within 150 metres where the pale plumage, horn coloured bill and more white on the wings marked it out from GGShrike. Nice to see Nathaniel C after so long. Once it flew over the hedge and disappeared before re-appearing perched in the hedge. People could get slightly closer by walking along the cliff edge and literally taking their life in their hands as their cracks along the path and when one chap walked past he made it but a section of the cliff fell around the 60 metres to the beach! I walked back to the field directly behind the Pit and seeing Rene B, he kindly pointed out the fine Great Grey Shrike, a much more striking bird with black bill and steel grey plumage and black on the wings. It was perched on top a rough hedge direcly left of a telegraph pole and it too flew behind the hedge. Walking back to show Rene the Steppe Shrike, he braved the cliff edge at his own risk and fortunately made it, the Steppe Shrike was still showing within a hedge but soon disappeared. My queue to leave and I checked Benacre sluice bushes where several Robins and a fine Redstart flew up from the grass. Checking the western end of the Kessingland sluice bushes a fine chacking male Ring Ouzel flew up from the gorse and in the fading light flew into a large bush presumably to roost. Walking northfirst a male Stonechat showed lightly albeit in fading light and his mate a female Stonechat also perched up and around 14 Linnets perched on a bush, concluded a fine afternoons birding but very poor on the photography front.