After a very busy start to October I finally had a day to myself on the 7th. The choice of where to go was a 'no-brainer', since a Red-tailed Shrike was 'showing well' on the National Trust reserve at Dunwich Heath. Red-tailed Shrike (previously known as Turkestan Shrike - it breeds in central Asia) would be a world 'lifer' for me. I would also get the chance to photograph the bird. I parked at RSPB Minsmere (free parking for me - I do come from Yorkshire.....) and walked the mile or so to view the bird near the coastguard cottages. I wasn't disappointed: shrikes have the endearing (for bird watchers) habit of sitting on the tops of bushes looking for prey and this bird didn't disappoint: it had quite a small territory (just a couple of large bushes), but seemed able to catch lots of prey items and store some in its larder inside one of the bushes. It was also a handsome adult male (most of the shrikes that are seen in the UK on passage are rather dowdy juveniles) - even better! Keen / professional photographers were having a field day, trying to catch the bird in flight and/or eating prey. I noticed that in some of the online images posted the bird had mealworms in its bill: a bit naughty, since it means that it was being fed in an attempt to keep it in the area. Anyway, here are a few (of many) photographs that I took.
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