I'm not twitching that much these days, but I can't resist a rare shrike, less than 2.5 hours from home. This is the UK's 3rd record, with the 2nd just a couple of weeks ago in Fife, Scotland. A busy social life made it hard for me to get there for a couple of days, but it done the decent thing and hung around for me.
As I arrived in the area I could see the designated car parking field in the distance and around 100 yards in front of me on the verge of the single track lane I was driving, around 50 birders, all looking intently across a field. Excellent, I thought they must be on it. Then as one, they all turned and faced me. I stopped the car in the middle of the road, to see a bird land in a small tree just 20 feet away. The shrike! I turned off the engine, put on the hazard lights and sat and enjoyed great views through my windscreen.
It seemed very settled so after a few minutes I started the engine and very slowly crept forward and pulled into a passing space. The bird remained in the tree. From here I had great scope views where I managed this record shot.
Pressure off I watched it move along the fence line, hawking bees and dropping down to take grasshoppers. A very enjoyable and successful solo twitch.
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