Above the ploughed the Steppe Shrike could be viewed from, it didn't even make it down as far as the two large trees in the centre of the photograph.
Above you can just make out the white wing pattern, much larger than on the Great Grey Shrike
Wall Farm Nature Reserve, Shropshire - 4th November 2011
A call on Monday from Mike Foley prompted this trip down to
Wall Farm near to Telford. A Steppe Grey Shrike had been reported from there
(firstly identified as a Great Grey) and Mike managed to get down on Tuesday and
as my work didn’t take me anywhere near I managed to take Friday off and take
the 2 hour drive down to this small nature reserve. I must say I was a little
worried as first as my trips to Shrikes have mostly proved fruitless over the
years and as Bird Guides had reported the bird before 8.00 most of the week and
it wasn’t until after 10.00 that it showed up on the report today. After
parking up in the farmer’s field and dropping my £3.50 (all being donated to
the British Legion) in the bucket I took the 10 minute walk down to the edge of
the ploughed field from where the bird could be viewed. It was quite distant at first, approximately
600m and though well out of range for photography it was easy to pick up with
the scope. For the first 2 and a half hours it stayed at the bottom end of the
field but stayed mainly in view occasionally dropping to the ground before
returning to the hedgerow or to a high point on a bush or tree. Eventually it
started to move closer and spent about half an hour around lunch time at about
400m where I was able to obtain a few record shots. I must admit with these or
any other photos I’ve seen I’d struggle to distinguish it from the Great Grey
Shrike and even looking in my reference books and the internet I’ve failed to
gain any real knowledge about this species, a copy of Shrikes of the world is
on its way. After about 4 hours I decided to head home happy that I’d added the
Steppe to my Shrike list having only seen Great Grey and Brown I’ve still got a
long way to go.
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2 comments:
Glad you got it. It seems to have come about as close as it did when I was there (i.e. about half way down the field). That being so, the extra 100mm on your Sigma does make quite a difference in image size. Well done. Mike.
Thanks Mike.
yes the extra reach of the sigma does have it's advantages though they might have been a little sharper if I'd remembered to turn IS off on the body after swapping lenses.
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