Friday 1 January 2010

Brown shrike back at Staines Moor

At the start of the listing year the brown shrike is back after an absence of two weeks. As it's fairly local, I decided to go straight up and see it for this year. There were surprisingly few people there, only six or eight. With directions from them, I quickly got on to it, in exactly the same area as when it went AWOL before Christmas.


I watched it for a while and took a few record shots. There were quite a few dog walkers going over the river so I went over and set up my tripod over a small clump of rushes where there was a bush about 20m away. The shrike is a creature of habit and usually does the rounds of its favourite bushes. I sat down to wait.


I watched it on the far side of the river where it gave good views to those on that side. Had I made a mistake? Perhaps I had made the mistake of sitting on the grass. Very quickly I had a very wet behind, the ice cold water seeping through all thicknesses. I shifted sideways so I could sit on the tuft itself. Eventually the shrike came over the river again quite a way away. It flew off behind a bush. Suddenly it appeared low down left of 'my' bush but it was obscured by a twig. Then, yes, it moved to the right hand side, half-way up. I managed about ten shots before he was off and I was happy.

This is a very entertaining bird. If you go, you're almost bound to see it. A nice start to the year.


7 comments:

  1. Its good to have "our" Shrike back! Great photo again Phil!
    Talons crossed - I am going to get my photographer friend to come to see the bird - if its still there of course on Monday - hoping its a sunny day!

    C

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  2. Well the birders on Saturday finally saw him off!

    Those dogs and birders have much to answer for!

    Still no doubt he will turn up somewhere else soon.

    Corinna

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  3. Hi, Corinna,

    Yes, I thought I'd better go up asap when it returned. Glad I did. Thank you for your kind comments. I was pleased with this picture. Slightly better than last time.

    Regards, Phil.

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  4. Nice photo. I keep meaning to go there but Ive been put off a bit by the fact its out of photo range. May give it a try now though....

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  5. Hi Phil - emails are bouncing back - is it full?

    2213 photo is paler - but I am consulting on it at mo- rest look like Lesser's!

    are you on Bird forum - if so I am Dryocopus
    and we can exchange mob nos! should have thought of that at Barnes!
    a site for you

    http://www.worcesterbirding.co.uk/redpolls_58.html

    Corinna

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  6. Hi Phil, great blog.
    I've just started birdwatching again after a 25 year hiatus, and decided to keep a blog. I would really appreciate a link on your blog. I've got your blog listed already.
    Cheers,
    Andy

    ReplyDelete

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