Woodchat Shrike

 

You will see, from the absence of blogs, that I have not been doing much birding this year. At least not in this country. Perhaps I am getting a bit stale from repeating the same circuit of visits each year and seeing the same birds over again. However Monday 29/4 I did get a flash of interest.

I had spent the day visiting garden centres with Sue. She was in her element, shopping and gardening, her two main interests. It was late afternoon and I was beginning to flag. I scanned the news on the phone and as I was still waiting for Sue, decided to check the days bird sightings. Something I had stopped doing of late.

I didn't expect much but was shocked to see a report of a Woodchat Shrike from earlier that morning. It is a bird that I haven't seen in the UK and whilst I am no longer a fanatic lister it was certainly one that I would like to see. Even worse, the reported location was only just over a mile from where I was standing.

What to do? I had no camera or bins with me. Fortunately a second report came through as we walked back to the car - still there but distant. I dropped Sue off at home picked up my gear and drove back to Angmering. Unfortunately I didn't take the scope, which was a mistake.

I arrived at the location at about six o'clock to see a small group of people observing the bird, which really was distant. You could see it with the bins but I couldn't see enough to make an identification. However, a kind lady let me have a look through her scope and the enhanced view was sufficient to confirm the sighting.

I took a few pictures but the bird was too distant giving only a few pixels for its image. Fortunately before I left it did come a bit closer and I managed one picture.

Woodchat Shrike

Still very distant and this is a huge crop with some enhancement in Photoshop to bring out the detail. It's not one of my better pictures but it does show the head colours and wing patches that are diagnostic of the Woodchat Shrike.

I had been lucky, seen the bird and got a record shot. I might have gone back the next morning to try to get a better picture but as it happened the bird was not seen again or at least not reported again.