The Standlake Birder -

   My last blog, see here , told the story and background of my twitch to Scotland to see Britain’s second Long-Tailed Shrike, a record 26 years in the making since the first and only previous record on the Outer Hebrides in the year 2000.   What this hobby is absolutely guaranteed to do is surprise you!    A couple of weeks ago rumours started to circulate of a supressed record of potentially another bird in farmland on the Gloucester/Oxfordshire border. I understand it was suppressed because the farmer was away on holiday and he wanted to sort out parking etc. when he got back which doesn't seem that unreasonable.  News only leaked out after it was thought to have gone. Not to be that easily deterred, Gloucester birder Mike King put in a sterling effort to refind it and his efforts were duly rewarded when it flew over his head on a Cotswold lane near the small village of Eastleach Turnville on Sunday.   Remarkably, based on near overlapping record da...

      A somewhat distant record shot of Britain's second Long-tailed Shrike So here is my plan to cope with our third heat wave of the year – drive 390 miles overnight to Fife where it’s a balmy 16 degrees. Don’t worry though, there’s no such thing as global warming, the self-proclaimed orange headed genius said so!   Seriously though, what would motivate me to drop everything and do a 780 mile round trip to deepest Scotland – well a bird obviously. And I’m not obsessed really! honestly!   OK so here is a familiar story for anyone who has read my twitching blogs before. Let’s go back to 13:30 on Saturday afternoon when a Shrike on a farm just outside of Crail in Fife was reported as probably a Lesser Shrike, a nice rare bird in its own right, but possibly a Long-tailed Shrike, a bird as rare as rocking horse poo in the UK.   I was home sitting over the weekend while Carolyn was at a wedding fare with her cake business. When she got home mid-afternoon after ...