The Standlake Birder -

      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 ...