The Long tailed Shrike at Crail in Fife 5th July 2026

c Adrian Webb

Only one Long tailed Shrike has been discovered in Britain.

Ever  

And that was all of twenty six years ago when one was at Howbeg and Howmore on South Uist which is in the Outer Hebrides.It was seen on the 3rd and 4th of November 2000 but had possibly been present since the 27th of October.

The record is famous not only for the discovery of this ultra rare visitor to Britain but infamous for the near disaster that overtook a tiny charter boat of a dozen twitchers heading for South Uist to see it. At sea the boat's engine failed and it began drifting towards cliffs and required a Mayday call which precipitated a full on emergency rescue involving a lifeboat, the coastguard helicopter and a Swedish oil tanker. This but one example of the legendary occurrences that seem to go hand in hand with an extreme activity such as twitching rare birds.

The Long tailed Shrike on South Uist was thought to be of the race Lanius schach erythronotous which breeds in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, southern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan and northeast Iran to northern India. It is a partial migrant - northern populations migrate to winter in the Indian sub continent, sometimes being found as a vagrant in the Middle East and Arabia.

The bird on South Uist occurred during a time of exceptional eastern shrike vagrants arriving in Britain with Brown, Southern (Steppe) Grey and Isabelline Shrikes all found in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe which undoubtedly helped with the record being accepted. It was however considered highly unlikely that another Long tailed Shrike would make it to Britain

Fast forward to the 5th of July 2026 and Sunday lunchtime. My birding pal Mark P sent me a text

You going to Fife?

This could only mean one thing

I checked my Birdguides app and there it was.

 A mega alert.  Long tailed Shrike, Crail, Fife

An adult type had been found in a garden in the midst of farmland along a track to a place called Thirdpart House near Crail.

I was immediately consumed by the usual tangle of emotions that unerringly arrive with such news. Anxiety, excitement, anticipation even mild panic are all in the mix.

I wavered over my options

Crail was 497km north of my home in  West Oxfordshire and would take just over 7 hours to driving to get to.If I left immediately I could get to Crail at around 8pm. Enough time to see the bird before dark.

I called Mark P but he was not interested in coming

I rang Mark R my longtime twitching buddy who now lives in North Yorkshire, thinking I could meet him and we could go on to Scotland together but he was already preparing to leave with two friends from Middlesbrough so no luck there

Start driving!  he advised and hung up

It had to be done. 

I was on my own on this one

Go and go now an inner demon told me

My wife at that moment returned from  having lunch with a friend and I  informed her I was going to Crail.Well used to such announcements she wished me luck and I set off. A few miles down the road I had second thoughts as ambiguous messages came suggesting that the shrike might not be a Long tailed Shrike after all and it had not been seen for over an hour and a half since first discovered.

I dithered and discussed it with Adam, another Oxfordshire birding friend and decided to abandon the trip. Not feeling great due to a painful hip, in all honesty I did not relish testing my pain threshold by driving for seven hours with no one else to help with the driving or to give me moral support.

Let's face  it I was looking for any excuse to abort the trip but there was no escaping the fact that it was a Long tailed Shrike and I would be unlikely to ever get such an opportunity again.

Most of my other twitching pals on our WhatsApp Group were all posting they were heading off later tonight to Crail. I decided I would do likewise having in the interim negotiated the emotional rapids that came with the initial news of the shrike and subsequently entering calmer waters in my mind. I  stocked up on pain killers and had to hope for the best.

The plan now was to leave my home at around midnight which would get me to Crail at around 0800 on Monday morning. In fact I left my home at 2300hrs after watching Norway beat Brazil in the World Cup,a result which I considered a good omen.Once sat in the car my hip left me in relative peace and I headed off into the night, crossing Oxfordshire and Warwickshire to join the M40 and then the M6 motorways with remarkably little traffic, presumably as everyone was waiting in anticipation to watch the England v Mexico World Cup match that was scheduled to commence with much fanfare at 1am

I tuned into Radio Five Live and learned it was raining with thunder and lightening in Mexico City and the match was delayed for an hour or more. I listened to the blather and verbal garbage as commentators tried to fill the downtime.In the end it got so bad I turned the radio off.

I made a stop at Keele Services and found on leaving the car that I could hardly stand due to my hip but after a minute the pain eased and I managed to stagger in to get a virtually undrinkable coffee from a vending machine.I should have known better. I felt pretty low but was now committed and there was no turning back.

Back into the night and I turned on the radio and listened as I drove those weary miles  north while England embarked on a match that was both thrilling and anxiety racked in equal measure and made me forget all about the shrike and any worries it mght not be there in the coming morning. An epic last twenty minutes as ten men withstood Mexico and Engerland were through to the quarter finals. Even being Scots I could but congratulate the team on their fortitude and resilience.

Dawn came at around 4am as I passed Tebay, high in the Cumbrian Fells and then descended onwards to Carlisle, crossing The Solway and circumventing Glasgow, heading east to Edinburgh and over the Forth Road Bridge into Fife and onwards towards Crail.

I stopped at garage in Leven to check my Birdguides app. It was 5am and I found only one entry.

Long Tailed Shrike  Crail Fife

It was still there!

I changed into walking boots on the deserted garage forecourt and donned a jumper as the weather was very different to when I had set off from my home. No warmth here but grey cloud and a chilly strong wind and even rain threatening.

I followed the road east, winding through endless villages, all now restricted to 20mph, not that I could have gone any faster, being stuck as I was behind a huge lorry.Finally it turned off and I continued onwards towards Crail, now driving in an open landscape of huge agricultural fields and with the mighty North Sea off to my right

The on site instructions had mentioned something about parking in a field by Barnsmuir Farmshop at Crail  and then following an obvious track for 2kms to where the shrike was but I had no idea where this was although it must be nearby. As I approached Crail, to my left  I could see a field with many cars parked in it and what looked like a birder wandering around.

This must surely be the place and I turned off onto a dirt track and  immediately the birder, also acting as a parking attendant so presumably local, waved to me and indicated where I should park alongside the other vehicles behind the farmshop.

It was pure joy to leave the car and to compound my delight who was standimg there by the car next to mine but Adrian, one of my twitching pals who had just arrived having driven from his home in Essex last night.

We got our gear together and my hip for once felt relatively pain free. I decided that carrying a camera, lens, heavy telescope and tripod for two kms would be tempting fate with my temperamental  hip so opted to leave the scope in the car which turned out to be a major error of judgement on my part

We now embarked on the two km walk to the site, along a dirt track that arrived at a car where a friendly local gave us further instructions on where to go, involving following the track further between the fields and then around some farm buildings to another field of wheat that we could look across to a mature hedgerow on the far side and that the shrike favoured.

The distant hedge favoured by the shrike

Walking out to the site we were taken by the number of Corn Buntings, Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers singing along the farmland's  field edges as we passed. We were told by the local birder in the temporary car park that there was an impressive population of Corn Buntings, over a hundred territories I think he said, in these parts.

The commencement of the 2km walk

Passing returning birders who had already seen the shrike we enquired if it was showing well but were told not really and it was being seen only fleetingly although reasonably regularly.

Rounding the barns we came across around fifty or so birders lined alongside the wheatfield on a narrow grass verge looking out and over the crop to the hedgerow beyond.It was a tight squeeze to stand on the narrow edge as it was guarded by a very deep ditch behind you, hidden by overhanging vegetation. One step backwards and down you would go as several people inadvertently demonstrated, fortunately without incurring serious injury.

The shrike had been reported yesterday as being 'mobile and elusive' and on our arrival at the field we were told that it had not been seen for around forty minutes but was somewhere in the hedge which was a little too distant for my camera and lens combo hence there would be no photos.

The strong wind did not help either as it meant the shrike was perching low down in the bottom of the hedge out of the wind and consequently was extremely hard to see. We waited for quite a long time with little happening.   

Then a nearby birder announced he had it in his scope and invited us to look through it to see the shrike properly as both Adrian and myself had never seen one in Britain. 

The views were not great as the shrike was much obscured by wildly shaking leaves due to the wind but there you are. Take it or leave it. This was the best we would get for now. It was our choice. I had no hesitation and got my first, if slightly underwhelming views of this major British rarity.

My second view of the shrike was as it flew along the outside of the hedge only to disappear into the foliage.I needed more than these two views to feel fulfilled.

The distance we were required to stand from the hedge meant that only the guys with huge lenses or telescopes could see the shrike in any detail  whenever it appeared  which was not that often and even when it did only remained on view for less than a minute.  

I decided to go and get my scope from the car and on passing  the man with the bucket gave him a fiver as a donation.Apparently the farmer who owned the land was recovering from prostate cancer and the money would go to research into prostate cancer. On getting back to the field I was informed inevitably that the shrike had been showing really well and frequently in my absence.

Refusing to rise to the bait I erected my scope and tripod and less than a minute afterwards found it  in the bushes, perched in an open gap.As the early morning wore on the shrike began to perch higher in the bushes, more often in the open and was markedly more active.I gained several more than acceptable views of it from both front and back as it moved about on its various perches. It remained ever faithful to the hedge and certain parts of the hedge seemed to be its favourite and to which it returned on a regular basis.

I watched it for around forty minutes moving along the hedge, perching as it sized up its next meal.It was a male and thus reasonably colourful with a long dark tail, distinct grey crown, nape and mantle, black face mask,  whitish underparts and orange wash to its flanks and orange brown on its upperparts and rump, contrasting with black brown wings and tail.

The local Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrows were none to happy about its presence, mildly mobbing it but the shrike ignored  them apart  from giving a brief chase after a Yellowhammer.

Families of Swallows swooped low over the field in front of us, twisting and turning to seize insects above the heads of wheat, the adults markedly more agile than their newly fledged young.

The shrike flew to a large tree and hopped about in the centre. I told Adrian

One more view and then I think I am on my way

I had thought to stay overnight but resolved to drive back home the same day and after some breakfast in nearby Anstruther I headed for home around 11am. 

The drive required several stops for coffee and to sleep briefly where I could  and at eight that evening I was back home in Oxfordshire.

Postscript 

In a year where we had been bemoaning the paucity of 'good' birds not one but two absolute megas have hit our shores in what is traditionally considered a quiet time of year for birding. 

A Western Reef Egret  in Wales in June. The first for Britain

A Long tailed Shrike in Scotland in July. The second for Britain

All photos on this blog are courtesy of Adrian Webb and with my grateful thanks

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