More Great Grey Shrike Photos (Lanius excubitor) - Ivinghoe, Bucks. 8th Oct 2008.

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) - Ivinghoe, Bucks. 8th Oct 2008.

With news that a Great Grey Shrike had been reported at Ivinghoe, Bucks I made a mid-afternoon visit to see if I could catch up with it. I made it to Ivinghoe and parked up in the car park, meeting a couple of departing birders I was informed that the Great Grey Shrike was still present and showing well. I made my way across the road and up the public footpath and soon found myself walking alongside a stubble field, just as I was wondering where I had to go a gentleman appeared from next to the hedgerow with camera in hand and I realised I was in the right spot.

As I peered through the hedgerow I soon spotted the Shrike perched in a tree in front of me, it slowly made its was along the hedgerow towards where we were viewing it from, by the time it had come in to close range I had set my scope and camera up and began snapping away. My experiences with Great Grey Shrikes are rather slim and with the exception of a single bird at Wishmoor Bottom on the Berks/Surrey border which showed quite well, all my other views have been across fields and distant hedgerows, certainly nothing to write home about and almost impossible to digiscope well because of distance and poor weather conditions. I was hoping today would be an exception, the afternoon sun was bearing down and it highlighted the Shrike up beautifully as it flew closer to us before perching in the hedgerow some 30-40ft away, close views gave me a good chance to see the faint barring on the breast and of course fantastic views of its black "Zorro" like mask and white eyestripe, a very striking individual indeed. As the bird sat quietly I resumed taking a few more photos and was unaware that I had caught it regurgitating a food pellet, it wasn't till I looked quickly later did I realise I had a fairly decent photo of what I thought was it eating something. With the Great Grey Shrike feeding on Insects, Mice, Voles and small birds they often regurgitate insect casings, fur and other indigestible items in a small pellet, they also store surplus prey by impaling them on a sharp thorn or even barb wire returning to feed on them later, these are known as "larders". The Great Grey Shrike then moved off flying along the hedgerow often perching at the top of a few dead tree branches, continually scanning the ground beneath it continued along the hedgerow away from us and then flew over to the east side of the hedge. A few steps to our right and we were back watching it again and it continued hunting the hedgerows for sometime, catching what looked like both a Beetles taken from the ground and also a Bumble Bee caught out of sight.

A familiar face in Mike and Rose Collard appeared at the bottom of the footpath and after viewing the Shrike from further down the path they walked up and joined us. The Shrike moved along the hedgerow towards us again and showed incredibly well often scanning the ground for prey before swooping down in an attempt to catch it, it then disappeared and whilst waiting for it to reappear we spotted both a Fox and single Fallow Deer on the far side of fields. The Fox looked incredibly bright and clean with a red and amber glint as the sun shone down on it and we watched as it wandered off along the fields before it was lost to view. The Shrike then reappeared on the far side of the hedgerow and we watched as it dropped down to some bushes at the foot of the tree, it was here where we got a glimpse of the Shrike eating prey from it's larder, although the views were partly obscured it certainly looked like a Vole or Mouse that was being partly devoured. It didn't seem to feed for long so my assumption would be that it didn't eat everything and would return later, it soon returned to the top of the trees where it cleaned its bill and preened before moving along to the next perching point. At one point it flew to the public footpath hedgerow and perched in full view and later was joined by 2 Mistle Thrushes who were intent on feeding on the Hawthorn berries in the same tree, a quick stand off ensued with the outcome being the Shrike seemed undeterred and remained perched at the top of the tree, one Mistle Thrush flew off and the other dropped down to feed on the berries. I left at 5:45pm with the bird still showing well. The Great Grey Shrike is best viewed from public footpath next to the stubble field, peer through the hedge at a number of spots to view the Shrike. SP950157

I left the car park at Ivinghoe and followed Mike and Rose to Startops Reservoir where we watched the 2 juvenile Little Gulls which were flying low over the water catching insects. Great views of both Little Gulls which showed the black "W" markings across the upperwing.

The sun was now starting to go down and I had just enough time to drop in to Wilstone Reservoir on the way home. The 2 feral Whopper Swans were both present and circling round and round the lake, Little Egret in the cemetery corner, 2 Dunlin, Lapwing and Golden Plover all present in the south corner, no sign of either Ruff or Spotted Redshank present earlier in the week.

Added To My Year List

210. Great Grey Shrike

Wishmoor Bottom,Berks & Pagham Harbour,West Sussex. 20th October 2007.

Great Grey Shrike.
Mediterranean Gull.
Pomarine Skua.

Little Egret.
Little Stint.
Curlew Sandpiper.

A late planned visit to Pagham Harbour was quickly aranged on Friday evening with one of my bird race team members Roy Rose, we discussed the local sightings and he informed me that he'd already dropped in to Wishmoor Bottom near Camberley to see the Great Grey Shrike that had been showing well since the 14th of October.I made a quick decision that we could probably drop in at Wishmoor on our way to Pagham and with Roy knowing the birds location hopefully we could get good views and be on our way.

On arrival at Wishmoor Roy led the way to where he had seen the Shrike on a previous visit, the sun was shining and with clear blue skies it felt more like spring than Autumn. We made our way from the car and within a few minutes we heard a Goldcrest calling from the conifers alongside the path, then came Coal Tit shortly followed by Stonechat. We arrived at the spot and after a couple of minutes searching we spotted the Great Grey Shrike perched on a small branch, we managed to get a bit closer and had very good views of the bird in fantastic light, a number of other birders where visible dotted around the landscape all looking for the Shrike. It then flew around us and we turned to walk towards where it had headed, Roy's famous last words~Watch out for that ditch!, to which I didn't disappoint~What ditch! Oh that ditch!, down I went disappearing in to the ditch below. After I hauled myself out of the ditch we caught up with the Shrike again which then began to chase a Stonechat across the heath, they both made haste across the heathland with the Shrike trying in vain to catch it's quarry, darting this way and that the Stonechat finally shook the Shrike of it's tail and headed off across in to the gorse. A Meadow Pipit showed well in a bush in front of us as did another gorse specialist!.

Next stop was Selsey Bill, West Sussex, along the seafront a party of a dozen Turnstones scurried along the waters edge, a couple of Pied Wagtails flew over, 2 Linnets were perched on a house roof with a Lesser Black-backed Gull and a single Med Gull was amongst a group of Black-headed and Herring Gulls on the water close to the beach. We made our way to the Lifeboat house and soon spotted a number of Gannets fishing offshore, Greater Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed, Herring and Black-headed Gulls all present. Back in the car and off to Church Norton.

At Church Norton 12 Curlew were feeding in the fields before the Church and on arrival at the church car park we were alerted that a Pomarine Skua was present in the harbour. We arrived to find the Skua still sat on the ground and although it was fairly distant we still had good views. Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Brent Goose, Shelduck, Little Egret, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail all present around the harbour and after watching the Pomarine Skua fly off towards Selsey we headed towards the beach. At the beach the usual Turnstones were busy searching the along the incoming tide and out at sea 2 Red-breasted Mergansers drifted past towards Selsey followed by a small group of 7/8 Common Scoter.

We drove back to the Pagham Nuture Reserve and met up with the warden who we'd earlier met watching the Skua, he told us that a Little Stint was on the Ferry Pool so we headed off in search of it. It was still present and fed along the edge of the pool with 2 Avocet nearby. A quick look by the sluice before we headed home proved successful with a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper feeding in the mud.

Added To My Year List.

205. Great Grey Shrike (Wishmoor Bottom, Berks)
206. Gannet
207. Pomarine Skua (Church Norton, West Sussex)*
208. Common Scoter

Added To My Life List.

296. Pomarine Skua