An adult female Asiatic Brown Shrike was found yesterday on the cycle path about 300 yards west of the coast guard houses, favouring the seaward side of the path on the gorse. Always remaining distant, it did give prolonged views as it fed right up to dusk. It was found by local birder Mark Warren late afternoon. Depending on your own thoughts on the much-debated Lizard bird last Autumn, this amazing Spring find will probably take the official First Record for the county. Sadly the Lizard individual never really gave itself up to confirm its' identity. The Land's End female displayed well, and whilst distant for photography, did show all the important id features. 20 minutes from dusk, when most birders had departed, it fanned its' tail for a couple minutes to show the important short outer tail feather. Regarding the conditions leading up to its occurrence here, one can only really wonder where it has actually come from. The local weather conditions had just changed to an easterly airflow following a day of mist and rain. From memory, there are less than ten records in the UK and this is the first Spring record.
Nice work Steve,
ReplyDeletewas rueing the choice of week when that came on yesterday. A week to the minutes previous I was on the cycle track having given up on the grotty american Finch! At least that Woodchat was decent enough to stay around for me.
Dave.