Orange-flanked Bush Robin...

Ok, ok, red-flanked bluetail if you prefer. Another Chard birder caught up with the long-staying Gloucestershire bird at the weekend and found a celeb with a touch of the verbals into the bargain...

Star of the show - Red-flanked bluetail: Andy Grinter

Distracting celeb, the very vocal Mike Dilger

Apparently Mike Dilger is loud...very loud. The general feeling was if he'd talked less and a bit more quietly, the RFB would have shown much better than it did, hmmm...they say celebs like nothing better than the sound of their own voice...

Next up for Mr G was the forest of Dean for Goshawks and this obliging chap at Crabtree Hill:

Great Grey Shrike: A. Grinter

...and the warmer weather has seen a few of these appearing over the last couple of weeks - Vipera berus sunning itself:

Adder, Forest of Dean: Andy Grinter

This one's interesting, although it's the females who are usually brown, males can be this colour too. The supralabials are also very bright and contrast well with the rest of the head indicating it could be a male. Females tend to look more muscular with shorter tails than the guys and usually look less contrasty overall. My bet is that this is a male.