Aren't Shrikes lovely?

When Gill said she fancied a trip to the Forest of Dean, on a bright sunny November Tuesday, who was I to argue? She won't be on maternity leave for too much longer. First stop was Parkend Church, where we ate our lunch, and only found a few Redwings and Siskins. We moved onto Cannop Ponds, where no plastic quackers showed themselves, but a shortish walk east took us to Farmers Green, where we had aleady been once this year. It took me about 5 seconds to find the returning Great Grey Shrike, in a nearby sapling, about 80 yards away from us. We watched it for about half an hour, as it glided down several times, and apparently failed to find food. The only other birder we saw, said he'd seen a shrike about a mile north east of where we were a couple of hours earlier. Same bird? We were just about to set off back, when a chunky bird landed in the top of a distant tree. The telescope revealed a Hawfinch, nice! New Fancy View was quiet, but pleasant in warmish sunshine. At Beechenhurst Lodge, as we sat outside with our cups of tea, 6+ Bramblings landed briefly in the top of a nearby tree, Siskins sneezed past, and Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch joined the more usual birds on the feeders. So, another successful visit to the Forest of Dean. Wild Boar one day?