I decided to pay another brief visit to Staines Moor an hour before dusk to see if I could find the Brown Shrike that I had dipped on October 22nd. As I took the walk down to the patch several birders were leaving but informed me the bird was still showing though being a similar time to my last visit I wasn’t to hopeful. The walk didn’t seem as long this time and as I crossed the first bridge 2 birders (Tom & Sean) were set up on the south side of the river but no sign of the bird though Tom said it had been seen 20 minutes prior to my arrival, nothing new there then!
Slowly working the south side of the river Sean spotted it in a distant bush. I moved across to join him and there it was my first Shrike. I managed 2 very poor shots through my mobile but whilst I reached for the camera it disappeared. I stayed around for a further half hour but with the light failing it had surely gone to roost. There are records of 4 previous Brown Shrike in the UK - source Rare Bird Alert
YES THAT IS THE BROWN SHRIKE!
BROWN SHRIKE COURTESEY OF DAVE HUTTON A LINK TO HIS PHOTO WEBSITE IS IN THE WEBSITE LISTINGS
4 comments:
The old saying comes to mind about a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush but nevertheless there it is!! Well done, you deserve to get it after all your hard work and after missing out on the other two shrikes. Your luck has now changed for the better! Mike
not to be pedantic but there is a previus mainland brown shrike record,at flambourugh(not spelt right) head and the putative bird on the lizard not long ago.RBA is wrong
MB
The Yorkshire(Flamborough Head) bird was present around about September 25 last year and there was also another one recorded a couple of months on North Uist. Mike.
P.S. What a brilliant photo!
In response to Midland Birders comment I would like to say it was I that was wrong not RBA. I had just interpreted the reports on the RBA site to say that this was the first mainland sighting, this has now been removed. The reported sightings of the Brown Shrike at both Flamborough Head and North Uist do not appear on the RBA site or on the official BOU accepted list and being relatively new to serious birding had not heard of the aforementioned sightings.
I appreciate comments both positive and negative, but would also appreciate sources to be given if I get it wrong so I can check things out myself and correct them.
Derek
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