Woodchat Shrike and Linnets

I went out to the Gower Peninsula late this afternoon, hoping to see the shrike again. This time, I walked along the grassy path above the beach, heading from Rhossili towards Llengennith. Looking up towards the ridge of Rhossili Down to my right, I saw several birds of prey soaring above, including at least a couple each of Kestrels and Buzzards, and at least one Peregrine. All, unfortunately, too far away for any decent photos. On arrival at the other end of the beach, I found the shrike in its usual place, and set about getting a few shots. I dug my Canon 7D out of retirement for the day, hoping the extra megapixels over my other cameras would help in cropping any distant pictures. However, I found, again, that the pictures from this camera are just too grainy for my taste. Anyway, a couple of the better shots:

Whilst I was waiting for the shrike to return to its usual perch, a pair of Linnets appeared, enabling this shot of the colourful male:

And this of his onlooking mate:

After an hour or so, I walked back along the beach to Rhossili, and took this shot looking back to where I had just come from:

It was a good day to be on Gower.