Long-tailed Shrike, A return visit

Brian offered to take Dad to Eastleach Martin this morning and give him the chance to add the shrike to his life list, as he was unable to go on Sunday due to family commitments.

We left at 5am and were on site by 6.30am. Dad, keen to see the bird, walked on ahead, while we sorted out the parking and gear. As we joined him, he had already seen the shrike. Now we could relax and enjoy the bird at leisure. Brian joined a small group of birders along the public bridleway, while Dad and I stayed on the roadside. The bird showed much better for us this morning than it did on Sunday. It spent its time either perched up in the nearest Hawthorn, on the fence posts, or on the wire, where it would fly down onto the grass and catch Grasshoppers or bees and return to the wire.

Until this month, there had only been one record for Britain: a first-winter bird at Howbeg and Howmore on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Seen on the 3rd and 4th of November 2000.

However, this first-for-Britain record is also infamous for a group of twitchers who chartered a small fishing boat. The boat's engine failed in the rough waters, causing them to drift dangerously towards the cliffs. The Mayday call and rescue included the lifeboat, the coastguard helicopter, and a Swedish oil tanker!

The second record was found on the 5th of this month, some twenty-six years after the Uist record, in Crail, Fife, and was last reported on the 8th.

The long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach erythronotous) breeds in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, southern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and northeast Iran and parts of northern India.

The Fife shrike was just too far and would have meant an overnight stay, which at this time wasn't possible. It would have been 470 miles and would have taken 8½ hours.

But we couldn't imagine another individual turning up just 97 miles from home, and only a 2-hour drive. In fact, having left home at 5 am, we made it in 1½ hours.

Long-tailed Shrike: Eastleach Martin, Gloucestershire

The news services reported belatedly that a 1st-summer Long-tailed Shrike was present at Macaroni Farm from the 8th-16th July, but there has been no sign since. Then it was seen in the hedge along a minor road, but again "no sign since".

After an early-morning search today failed to find the bird, it was subsequently refound in the hedge at 11.21am.

A phone call from Brian early this afternoon saw us heading towards Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire, where the Long-tailed Shrike had been refound. After a delay on the M25, we reached the farmer's field that had been opened up for parking, paid the £5 donation and set off along the minor track. I grabbed a quick look at the shrike through another birder's scope, which proved to be the closest view I had of the bird the entire time spent on site. It was constantly on show, but remained distant, preferring to spend most of its time at the end of the hedgeline farthest from the road. Brian, in his haste to get on the road, had forgotten to put his memory card back in his camera before leaving home, but it wasn't a day for photographs while we were there anyway.

Hudsonian Godwit: Manningtree, Essex

This morning, I was planning a leisurely day at home, but that changed when Brian phoned to ask if I wanted to go to Manningtree to try for the Hudsonian Godwit.  

I have only ever seen one in the UK, a male at Burton Mere in Cheshire, and the chance to see one in my home county of Essex was all I needed to agree to the trip. 

We parked alongside the CO-OP supermarket and took the riverside path. A returning birder told us the target bird was feeding along the shoreline, only 100 metres along the path. We could see a group of godwits ahead of us, but as we approached, it was clear that the bird was not among them. We were told it had flown downriver 10 minutes earlier. We carried on along the path, under the railway bridge, crossed the A137, and continued along the path, hoping to find the godwit along this stretch of the river. Ahead of us was a small group of birders, all looking intently at a single godwit on the far bank. It was the Hudsonian Godwit. It made a couple of short flights, showing the diagnostic black axillaries and underwing coverts. Suddenly, it headed upriver and landed below a grass bank among a flock of Black-headed Gulls. It remained out of view for a short time until a tractor came along and the gulls and godwit took flight. It returned to the water's edge and began feeding again. 

Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) is the smallest of the godwits; it breeds on grassy tundra in Canada and Alaska and winters in southern South America.

Hudsonian Godwit

Previous records of Hudsonian Godwit in the UK.

1981- 1983 An adult bird at Blacktoft Sands, Yorkshire, before wintering at Countess Wear in Devon. The same individual was presumed to have returned to Blacktoft Sands in the spring of 1983

1988 A one-day individual at Slains Pools, Collieston, Aberdeen

2015 Two separate birds arrived; one at Meare Heath (Somerset) in April-May, and a male later in the summer/autumn in Inishdawros, Ballyconneely, County Galway/Inishmore, County Galway (not included in the UK records)

2020 A juvenile on the Eden Estuary in Fife from November to December

2023 A summer male at Grutness Pool on Shetland from July to August

2024 A male at Burton Mere Wetlands in Cheshire and then in Flint, Flintshire, North-east Wales, Aug/Sept

2025 A female at Titchfield Haven in Hampshire, April/May

2026 A one-day male at Minsmere, Suffolk, in July, now present between Cattawade, Suffolk, and Manningtree, Essex