Britain’s second Long-tailed Shrike lands in Fife – a mega twitch for a mega bird!

     

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 a rather exhausting but productive two days in a hot sticky marquee I mentioned the bird and she was very supportive of me embarking on what would be a mega twitch. By this time the Shrike had been firmed up as Long tailed.

 

It was almost a seven hour drive from home so it was pushing it to be on site before dark. I hence  decided to split the journey up and booked a £40 room in a Travelodge on the M6  near Carlisle. I was in bed by 22:30 with a low expectation of any sleep. The excitement of the twitch plus the England world cup game had my strange brain in overdrive. Surprisingly though, I fell asleep for 3 hours then woke up and checked my phone to find that the footy had been delayed due to electrical storms. I came to again some time after 3am to discover that we were winning 3-1  but that Mexico had just been awarded a penalty. Accepting that there was absolutely zero chance of any further sleep I packed the car and continued my drive towards Fife. What a nerve wracking last 30 minutes of the game but well done England for overcoming all odds and inflicting Mexico’s first home defeat since 2013.

 

Following the excellent info on our “Twitching  the Uk and Ireland” WhatsApp group I was on site bright and early. The shrike was located at a farm just outside Crail with parking at Barnsmuir farm shop. I was met by a friendly local birder on car park duty who had been involved in the birds discovery and received good Info on where the bird was and what to do – this was a working farm and we were only present due to the great kindness of the local farmer. A survey of Corn buntings was underway at the farm which led to the Shrikes discovery.

 

Twenty minutes later I was standing with perhaps 40 of so other birders viewing the Shrike in a somewhat distant hedge through my scope. I was in the normal twitching emotional mix of relief and elevation; a 780 mile dip did not bear thinking about!

 

As mentioned above, this is only the second UK record of this attractive Asian Shrike, the only other record being a 2 day bird in November 2000 on south Uist in the Outer Hebrides. This bird carries a certain notoriety in Uk twitching circles . A fishing boat carrying expectant twitchers on board famously broke down on route to the Outer Hebrides endangering those on board  requiring the coast guard to save them and leading to perhaps the most famous dip in UK birding folklore.

 

This species of Shrike is normally found across Asia from Kazakhstan to New Guinea where it populates scrub and open habitats.  The more northern birds are migratory while those found in the tropics are resident. Plumage variations across the range result in a split into 9 subspecies. Although there are considerable differences in plumage among the subspecies, they all have a long and narrow black tail, have a black mask and forehead, rufous rump and flanks and a small white patch on the shoulder. This results in a very attractive bird, that is as long as you are not one of its favourite prey items, lizards, large insects , small birds, rodents and even occasionally fish.  The plumage of the Fife  Shrike makes it a close match for a bird of the migratory erythronotus subspecies which breeds across Central Asia before migrating to India for the winter.

 

Although somewhat distant from the approved concrete slab viewpoint, limiting photography to record shots, it showed pretty well off and on in the hedge through my scope. It acted very much in the usual Shrike fashion perching in the hedge from which it would glide down at an angle to take its prey. It was being continuously harassed by the local Yellowhammers who clearly viewed it as a big threat, a response that must be deeply embedded in their DNA as, sadly, Shrikes are lost as a UK breeding bird meaning these farm birds have never seen one before.

 

This tick represents my  8^th Shrike record in the UK the others being

 

·      Red-backed Shrike

·      Grey Shrike

·      Lesser Grey Shire

·      Turkestan Shrike

·      Isabelline  Shrike

·      Woodchat Shrike 

·      Brown Shrike

 

The only one I still need is the Masked Shrike of which there are only 5 accepted UK records to the end of 2022. The last one  was a first winter bird in Kent in October 2020 which, for some reason which I can’t remember ,I did not go for.

 

Access to this site is absolutely at the discretion of the ageing farmer who has been very helpful moving stuff so the bird can be viewed. I had a chat with him and his wife before I left thanking him for letting us have access. Let’s hope everyone visiting behaves themselves so this can continue. There is a collection, which I contributed to, that the farmer intends to donate to a cancer charity, so please be generous if you go.

 

Late morning I made my way to the nearby attractive small town of Crail where I celebrated with a very generous late cooked breakfast in a very pleasant local café. I also brought a nice bottle of local Crail Gin as a thankyou present to my long suffering wife.

 

I debated whether  to do some more local birding or just drive home. Faced with a 7 hour drive back and already being very tired from my short night’s sleep, I decided to do the sensible thing and head home with plenty of time for rest breaks.

 

This kind of long distance bird twitch is always fraught with jeopardy, i.e. it is very black or white, you either see the bird or you don’t. Success on this occasion left me in a very upbeat and joyous mood on the way home. It’s important that I remember how this feels when the next bad dip slaps me in the face!

 

 

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!