Thursday 31 May 2012

30 May 12, Red-backed Shrike, Horsey Gap

I don't often make the effort to go birding out to the coast after work, but yesterday I thought I would. I packed my birding gear into my car in the morning and then headed out to East Norfolk after work. It was a lovely still sunny evening - just what I wasn't hoping for! I'd anticipated a bit of easterly wind and murky skies. I spent the first couple of hours at Waxham, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see a single migrant, so I drove south to Horsey Gap. I had about an hours worth of good light left, so I decided to bird the entrance track and bushes around the beach car-park. The entrance track was fairly quiet; a good mixture of breeding warblers, but nothing else, but when when I got to the car-park one of the first birds I saw was a shrike feeding in the fenced off area to the north-west. The bird was straight into the sun, so I wasn't 100% sure what species it was (although I suspected it was Red-backed). I moved round to the conifer strand to get a better view and sure enough - female Red-backed Shrike. I took a few photos, called Tim Allwood and put the bird out on RBA. Tim popped down for a quick look for the last half-hour of light and the bird was still there at 9pm when we all left.

Red-backed Shrike, female, Horsey Gap 30 May 12

Red-backed Shrike, female, Horsey Gap 30 May 12

Red-backed Shrike, female, Horsey Gap 30 May 12

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