A Return to that Shrike - 8th July 2026

With the Long tailed Shrike still lingering but twenty minutes drive from my home it seems remiss of me to not go and see it as often as possible. After all it is a mega rarity, only the third for Britain  no less and right on my doorstep, even rarer in Britain than the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater that I made such a huge and thankfully successful effort to go and see in far off Orkney. Mind you the shrike can in no way compete with the iconic status, charisma or sheer beauty of the bee-eater 

On a sultry windless Friday afternoon of sunshine and heat I decided to venture forth to Eastleach in the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire and endeavour to try and improve on the images I have so far managed to take of the shrike. With the day being so warm it was pointless arriving before 6pm due to the heat haze and shimmer the sun brought to the vast acres of dry stubble that surround the shrike's chosen hedgerow.

I also took my scope this time, to look for other migrants in the hedgerows although my primary purpose was to see the shrike.If it did not work out with the shrike then I could at least enjoy the other birds that frequent there at this time of year.

I parked by the Oxfordshire entrance to the now very familiar bridleway which incidentally forms part of the ancient Roman road called Akeman Street that runs seventy three miles from St Albans in Hertfordshire, crossing North Oxfordshire and onwards to Cirencester in neighbouring Gloucestershire. In this rural and secluded area of countryside there is a peace and a solitude that allows one to feel a definite sense of history and as I walked the bridleway it was not hard to imagine all those in centuries before who had trod this very ground too. In our hurried lives it is good to be able to find somewhere to slow the pace of life and pause for contemplation.

It was still very warm as I trod on the dry, crazy paving cracked ground of the bridleway, the grass now so withered by the drought it is almost white.  The heat haze was still very apparent but would soon disperse as the sun continued its slow decline.

I stopped to scope the hedge and drystone wall that marks the boundary between the two counties, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. As usual the slim forms of Common Whitethroats were abundant, slipping in and out of brambles and isolated hawthorns and amongst them emerged a sleek  Lesser Whitethroat, a prize of silver grey and shining white against the dark green background of bramble leaves.

 

I also had the great pleasure to discover two juvenile Whinchats perched on top of the brambles.

Crossing the county boundary I joined around a dozen  birders/toggers, stationed a little way off the bridleway in a setaside field. Some like me having come back multiple times for more of the shrike.

I found the shrike hunkered down in a hawthorn largely concealed by leaves and twigs and everyone was waiting for it to show itself better. A short wait ensued and then the shrike flew down to the bridleway to seize something and then returned to a hawthorn already festooned with plentiful red berries despite it being only early August.

The general concensus amongst those of us with cameras was to try to curb a natural impulse to move closer and wait until the shrike perched in the open and was not partially obscured by twigs or leaves. Having agreed that we should wait for it to come nearer to us rather than us move closer to it, the precise opposite happened as some crept nearer and the inevitable happened with the shrike flying further away along the hedgeline.

The shrike is currently in the middle of its annual moult and is far from looking at its best.The wings still show unmoulted outer primaries and secondaries and the wing coverts and scapulars are also in transition from first year to adult.The old outer feathers of the tail are still to be replaced whilst the newer feathers are still to reach their maximum length.The overall impression is of a slightly scruffy bird but of nonetheless pleasing overall appearance.

The current state of its moult will possibly mean its stay will be protracted and I will have the opportunity to return to photograph it when it has completed its moult and will present itself in its full glory.

Note the obvious darker new wing feather still not fully grown and the scruffy tail
showing the outer feathers yet to be replaced and new inner ones still growing.The
images at the end of this blog give a more complete impression of the current state
of its moult.

I would never have thought when watching the other Long tailed Shrike that I travelled to see on a cold cloudy, rainy day at Crail in Fife and only getting distant and fleeting views, that I would now be here, on a hot sunny day contemplating becoming almost blase about the presence of this obliging individual residing on Eastleach Downs. Long may it prosper and long may it remain!

The realisation dawned that maybe it would be best to allow the shrike to settle and see if it would come closer of its own volition We stood quietly or in some cases crouched in the dry setaside field watching  the shrike at some distance in the hedge and it duly moved to perch out in the open on a battered elder bush that like the hawthorns was prematurely bearing berries but this time they were bead like and black. 

Whilst waiting for the shrike to make its move I had scoped the distant bushes and found a superb male Common Redstart perched inconspicuously on the edge of a large hawthorn and just to its left an even better, male Whinchat which  in my mind fully justified the inconvenience of lugging my scope around as well as a camera, lens and bins.

Declining by common concensus  to chase after the shrike, it was agreed to wait and see if it would work its way back along the hedge which obligingly it did and showed very well to one and all.

Toggers shadows in the 'golden hour'

The shrike now seemed more settled and as our number had decreased to a single figure, we edged towards it and it showed no alarm and remained on its perch for a considerable amount of time. Eventually it flew down to seize something from the ground and returned to pose on the stems of a dead umbellifer.This was what the big lens guys and to be honest the rest of us had been hoping for and we set about taking image after image of it perched to photographic perfection on its stem.It could not have worked out better

Emboldened we edged further forward as the shrike remained apparently immune to any concerns and soon we were close enough, so no one could fail to get a good photo.The shrike remained clinging to its stem looking around but never found anything to eat. It remained where it was for ten to fifteen minutes and I took far too many images but these were going to be the ones. I just knew it and checking the back of my camera I was not disappointed with the results.

Vindicated I realised I could do no better. The shrike resolved any quandary in that regard by flying to a more distant perch on a stand of Fennel. My erstwhile colleagues said they were going to wait in the hope it would return but from experience I knew that would be unlikely. Un-noticed time had slipped by and we were now in that 'golden hour' when the light is nigh on perfect and the sun, as it sinks to the horizon, casts a golden hue over the land.

I set off east up the bridleway towards my distant car, whilst meanwhile the shrike had flown further west down the field and the others had followed it. I stopped at the county boundary and scoped the drystone wall and hawthorns and was rewarded  with a Northern Wheatear, bouncing along the wall catching flies and a juvenile Whinchat also hunting insects from the wall. 

Best of all the male Common Redstart revealed itself to be still in its favoured hawthorn, shivering its tail, its bright colours highlighted by the now setting sun.

I celebrated yet another pleasant interlude at Eastleach Downs with what has now become my customary pint of cider and packet of plain crisps at The Fox in Great Barrington. 

Then headed for home.