Nowadays, it has to be something pretty decent for me to get my twitching boots back on! County ticks and local scarcities mainly. But there are certain birds within a reasonable distance that can still be irresistable - a rare shrike for example!
Early July brought the amazing news of a 1st-summer Long-Tailed Shrike up in eastern Scotland, a UK mega, in fact just the 2nd ever record.
Incredibly, news then broke of another one, no more than an hour and a bit from home, seen on private farmland in inland Gloucetershire of all places! Gutting, as that would've been something I'd have made every effort to see. It's a bird I have enjoyed before, with fond memories of seeing then in Vietnam on my honeymoon some 9 years ago - giving some perspective as to how far ths bird had travelled. A stunner of a species that you could only dream of seeing in the UK, particularly that close to home.
Fast forward a few days and welcome news arose that the Gloucs Long-Tailed Shrike had been re-found by a local birder and after a few coversations in the background, the bird was now twitchable, with the farmer kindly arranging parking in a nearby field. Get in!!
While I couldn't go that day (Sunday 19/07), I hastily arranged to duck out of post-work Dad duties the following day and head straight to Eastleach Martin, near Burford after work. On a lovely sunny early evening, I got over in good time, paid my fiver at the field car park (a collection for further conservation work on the farm) and marched off down the road and footpath to the area. There would be no confusion as to where to go, with plenty of birders arriving and departing. It was though pleasingly not as caotic as it was likely to have been the day before!
After noting a couple of Clouded Yellows along the footpath, I joined the assembled 40 or so people and immediately zeroed in on the bird sat in it's favoured hedge. What a treat - Long-Tailed Shrike! This field boundary actually ran along the county border between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, causing quite a stir amongst Oxon birders initially, as to where exactly Oxon was and ensuring it was added to their county list!
Luckily, the Shrike began to move a bit closer along the hedge, each time dropping down to the field to grab prey, usually grasshoppers, before returning to a prominent pearch in the hedge. I then managed to get my closest views of all, as it made it's way to the other side of the hedge and into Oxon, sitting on a small hawthorn on the edge of the field for a while. The bird then flew to a different hedge, signalling my moment to reluctantly drag myself away, however with a very satisfying buzz of seeing something very special!
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