Thursday 15 September 2016

Red-backed Shrike at Beer Head

A brilliant find by Bun (Kevin Hale) on patch this morning - a nice colourful juvenile Red-Backed Shrike near the 'Summit' at Beer Head. There were birds everywhere; in the field, on fence posts, on wires etc. As well as the RB Shrike, between 09:00 & 12:00 there were at least:

100 + Meadow Pipit
2 Tree Pipit
8 Wheatear
20 + Yellow Wagtails over

Here's a  few snaps (many more to come along with video footage but I have to crack on with work now). The bird was very obliging; I simply sat on the ground and waited for it to come to me. It didn't seem remotely bothered by people even when there was a small crowd:



It caught quite a few Great Green Bush Crickets!



Update:
Steve had an Osprey over the estuary at 14:50 so I rushed down but dipped. However, there was a near constant stream of Swallows going through, with perhaps 400 - 600 passing by Tower Hide in a 15 minute period so that was good to see. There were also new singles of Ruff & Knot as there were 3 of each (1 Ruff on estuary, all others on BHM).


4 comments:

  1. What cracking shots of the R B Shrike Tim.Nice when they oblige for the camera!
    Seems like things are starting to move through now in good nos!

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    1. Many thanks Paul. Yep the Shrike was showing very well pretty much all day by the sounds of it! It seems there was some serious movement today - we had hundreds of Mipits and many thousands (!) of Swallows pass here. Plenty of other birds found elsewhere today too, both common and scarce migrants. Very good day!

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  2. Tim, hi - great photos! We met briefly in the Island Hide a couple days ago.

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    1. Thanks Paul! And good to meet you - it's an excellent area here.

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