Great Grey Shrike on Longridge Fell. Removing the sting from a bumblebee

March 25, 2012:
The bird has now been here for at least two weeks. It can be elusive though and is easily lost from sight amongst the tangled debris following tree felling. Recently the weather has been superb and bumblebees are now emerging. Today it could be seen removing the sting from one of these prior to eating it. At other times it would catch flies in mid-air off a favourite high perch.


Removing a sting






The debris-strewn area usually occupied by the bird. It can be seen as a minute speck in the centre of the middle distance horizon.

Great Grey Shrike on Longridge Fell, Lancashire

Yet another Great Grey Shrike has arived in this small area of Lancashire countryside. Today, the bird was hunting in recently-felled evergreen woodland on the fell-side about 8 km west of Easington. That is where another shrike was seen on Sunday at almost the same time as this one (also see an earlier posting below).


The terrain on the fell here is a tangled mass of fallen branches and scattered tree stumps and is consequently difficult to walk over. This, and the lack of cover, resulted in views which were rather too distant for good photography; the very poor light was also a problem. During tree-felling, the foresters had deliberately left standing a few scattered spikey dead trees for use as raptor perches and it was from the tips of these that the shrike did its hunting. No raptors were in evidence today but two Mistle Thrushes attempting to use the perches were soon chased away by the shrike. Grubs and voles whose runs have been exposed in the recently-torn earth were presumably an excellent source of prey.

Great Grey Shrike near Easington, Bowland

March 4, 2012:
Another Great Grey Shrike (or possibly the same one) has reappeared not far away from Marl Hill (see earlier) and Stocks Reservoir where one was seen on several occasions about a month ago. Today, it hunted from various viewpoints on scattered hawthorns some distance away in farmland. Poor dull light made photography difficult.





At one point, a 'mad' March Hare galloped across the same field.

Great Grey Shrike, Marl Hill, Bowland, Lancashire

January 13, 2012:
For each of the past few years a Great Grey Shrike has been reported within this general area of Bowland (from Stocks Reservoir to Waddington Fell), often arriving here before Christmas.



Perhaps due to the mild weather in early winter, a first sighting was made only yesterday at Marl Hill where a bird was seen in an isolated private garden where feeders are put out for tits and finches. No doubt this was the attraction for the Shrike. After an hour’s unsuccessful watch here on what was a beautifully bright and calm sunny morning today, a move further east along the road was rewarded with a sighting, the bird perched high in typical shrike-fashion on the tip of a roadside tree. It was possible to view it and photograph it down to about 25 metres before it was disturbed by an oncoming vehicle and was lost from sight. It made a brief return later but a further 3 hours of watching proved blank. Here, there is a large area of suitable but rather inaccessible terrain into which the bird presumably vanishes for long periods of time. A small flock of ten Crossbills, a very distant view through the 'scope of a Ringtail Hen Harrier over the moors to the north, and a Stoat in ermine in a nearby field, greatly added to the interest.

The Storiths Great Grey Shrike

March 1, 2011
Today’s beautiful spring-like morning, warm, windless, and with a clear blue sky, provided the ideal opportunity to search out the elusive Great Grey Shrike which yesterday had been reported back at Storiths in the Wharfe valley after a long absence.
[UPDATE: What is almost certainly the same bird was was reported 3km to the east by the old A59 road on March 3 & 4; it was back at Storiths on the 6th]



This bird had first been seen here at Storiths on December 8 last year where it remained until the 14th. It was not seen again until January 3 when (what was almost certainly) the same bird appeared at Grimwith Reservoir, some 10km to the north, and remained there until the 13th. A week later on January 20th it was seen briefly from Barden Scale Raptor Watch-point which lies between Grimwith and Storiths but since then there appear to have been no further sightings until yesterday (Feb 28) when it was back at Storiths. This was at a point a little above the hamlet in an area where logs were being stored prior to transport.
This morning, the chances of seeing it seemed slight because heavy machinery was active in the logging area at first. Thankfully though this soon stopped and after an hour's wait the Shrike suddenly appeared and perched on the top of a shrub for a few minutes. Then it was off again but this time despite a long search it couldn’t be relocated. Hereabouts, there is a large about of territory suitable for a Shrike and being a rural under-populated area the bird could be present but remain unnoticed for many days.



The small hamlet of Storiths at the centre of the Shrike's territory.



On the way home over the moors a Buzzard gave a nice view as it soared over Eastby Crags.

The elusive Long Marton Shrike

January 19, 2011:
About ten days ago a Great Grey Shrike had been seen near to the village of Long Marton near Appleby in the Eden valley, Cumbria. Last Friday (the 14th) I decided to make the trip to try to find the bird as it had been seen again on the previous day. The area which it frequented comprised open countryside north of the village, mainly farmland, with scattered trees and hedgerows. However, after scouring the area for three hours, there was no sign of the bird and I returned home but only to find later that it had been seen again that same afternoon.



So a return round-trip in excess of 150 miles had to wait until today. Again the outcome seemed unpromising as time went by with no appearance of the bird until in failing light in late afternoon it was sighted perched on overhead wires near to the road junction to Knock. There was just chance for a few distant photos before it flew off but it was soon re-found giving good views perched in typical Shrike fashion on the uppermost tips of trees along the roadside hedgerow. Again a few photos were possible before it disappeared in the gathering gloom not to be seen again. In looking for the Shrike, I had spent more than seven hours over two days as well as four hours travelling time but in the end it was all very worthwhile. Like the two drake Smews at Talkin two weeks ago, these Cumbrian birds seem only to make an appearance late in the day!





For the Shrike there was much suitable territory near Long Marton and its ability to move quickly around made it a frustrating and elusive bird to catch sight of. In the end, however, luck played its part.





Two Buzzards were also seen circling high nearby plus a Kestrel and two Great Spotted Woodpeckers along with many other of the commoner birds.


[Great Spotted Woodpeckers seemed to be quite common here]

Also, there was a beautiful sunset over the Lakeland hills seen on the way home.

Great Grey Shrike, Waddington Fell, Lancashire

October 18, 2010:
Apparently first sighted yesterday, the Great Grey Shrike was still on the fell-side this morning. It is presumably the same bird which spent much of the late winter here earlier in the year. Today it was very mobile, occasionally hunting from post tops along the wall crossing the moor to the west of the road but often it would disappear over the crest of the hill for long periods. It never came within less than 200 metres so that any photographs had to be taken at extreme range.

Great Grey Shrike at Waddington Fell, Lancashire - still there

March 28, 2010:
The Great Grey Shrike was still on the fell and seen (always at quite a distance) by several watchers from near the convenient lay-by on the B6478. When it was first sighted over a month ago it favoured a territory about 1 km to the east but for three weeks now it seems to have preferred this limited area.



If not initially visible it will usually soon appear at one of its look-out points on the power-lines, so patience is generally rewarded with a sighting. Early this morning it was reported to be singing/calling and someone else saw it take a vole and hang it in a nearby tree for a future meal. The bird is very active and from its many perches incessantly turns its head from side to side watching for prey movement below. It never seems to rest, so perhaps food is hard to come by? Unfortunately, it will probably be gone fairly soon now.

Great Grey Shrike on Waddington and Grindleton Fells

March 6, 2010:
After a single sighting near Chipping some weeks ago, this same (or another) bird was reported from the fells and conifer plantation above Grindleton on February 22. It was seen there by several people during subsequent days before moving about 1.5km to the west onto the Waddington Fell area a week later. There it has since been active on both sides of the road above the Moorcock Inn, perching on trees, broken walls and overhead wires. This is roughly the same location where a bird had also been seen in past years and is quite possibly the same one.

A local resident from Grindleton told me that he had seen the shrike in the Grindleton Fell plantation area as far back as the hard weather around Christmas time. Occasionally, the bird moves back to the original area above Grindleton.

Four days later on March 10, I again saw the Shrike in the same area on Waddington Fell, to the east of the road where it was hunting from scattered trees and later from overhead power-lines (apparently quite unaffected by the current passing through them!). The three photos immediately above were digiscoped.