Steppe Grey Shrike, Wall Farm NR
1st November
Very early start for work so I could finish a reasonable time. As luck would have it the Steppe Grey Shrike that has turned up in the Midlands is only around 20 minutes from where I was so I thought it would be rude not to go and see it.
The bird remained fairly distant while I was there and I later found out it had been hiding for most of the day and had only really started showing itself around five minutes before I arrived. Timing eh! It remained distant – around 150 yards away and after 30 minutes or so it disappeared. The last one of these was so confiding it would perch on spotting scopes – no fear of this bird following suit. A cracking bird anyway.
What was interesting is that that surrounding habitat, very similar to around home, was completely devoid of bird life – not even winter thrushes. Weird. Anyway I headed off home and managed to divert through Rixton late afternoon. I parked up at the junction of the lanes and after 20 minutes or so a Short-eared Owl lifted out of the crop and began quartering the field. It eventually landed on a little peat bank and completely ignored a shooter who was walking nearby. He was shooting rabbits and later told me about the Tawny Owl he had just seen! No sign of the Barn Owl tonight but three Kestrels, 2 Buzzards, four coveys of Grey Partridges and lots of fly over Redwings. In the gloom the Canada Geese also flew over.
Very early start for work so I could finish a reasonable time. As luck would have it the Steppe Grey Shrike that has turned up in the Midlands is only around 20 minutes from where I was so I thought it would be rude not to go and see it.
The bird remained fairly distant while I was there and I later found out it had been hiding for most of the day and had only really started showing itself around five minutes before I arrived. Timing eh! It remained distant – around 150 yards away and after 30 minutes or so it disappeared. The last one of these was so confiding it would perch on spotting scopes – no fear of this bird following suit. A cracking bird anyway.
What was interesting is that that surrounding habitat, very similar to around home, was completely devoid of bird life – not even winter thrushes. Weird. Anyway I headed off home and managed to divert through Rixton late afternoon. I parked up at the junction of the lanes and after 20 minutes or so a Short-eared Owl lifted out of the crop and began quartering the field. It eventually landed on a little peat bank and completely ignored a shooter who was walking nearby. He was shooting rabbits and later told me about the Tawny Owl he had just seen! No sign of the Barn Owl tonight but three Kestrels, 2 Buzzards, four coveys of Grey Partridges and lots of fly over Redwings. In the gloom the Canada Geese also flew over.
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