Just beautiful, a male Stonechat.

Today's Cuckoo encounter was pretty standard, after an hours wait, slightly longer than normal, he turned up as usual but seemed to get distracted from his normal behaviour at first. I had caught sight of another Cuckoo,  almost on the horizon and I am sure that he was aware of it  in his teritory as well.  He seemed to be more intent on patroling his patch rather than feeding.  I had a guest with me, Terry the owner of "the wood" and I was anxious to show him his first Cuckoo for more than 50 years. So what a thrill when he turned up and I was able to share the experience with him.  I felt especially pleased because the bird even landed (eventually) where I had predicted he would. He did his usually bit of feeding on the grass as well which gave Terry just brilliant views. I snapped off a few photos for the record but it's hard to get something different than I have taken before. This one was closer than normal and I couldn't get it al n the frame.

You've got to love a Stonechat.

Whinchat female.