A 1st year Brown Shrike was a bit of a surprise in the village today. Found at just before 10.00 am in the gully down to Cransdale head, it then led myself and PS a merry dance. Surprisingly elusive , it would fly very low and fast between perches, and then sit very low in the vegetation. It disappeared for 20 minutes at a time on a number of occasions. Each time it flew it raised our hopes with very rich brown upperparts, and very dark and clear mask, prominent supercilium, no white in the wing or tail, and also a very distinctive , long , pendulous tail. Any barring appeared mainly limited to the underparts. We were unable to get good perched views at this point. In the end however CNG arrived and with the extra pair of eyes we are able to pin it down for long enough to see the short primary projection, and short outer-tail feathers that confirmed the ID. The whole process had taken in excess of 2 hours.
Early to mid-afternoon very good sustained views were obtained in the long hedge at Kirkton until fighting dogs scared it off.
Lets hope for a cloudy night so it can be re-found in the morning. Interestingly there is another Brown Shrike down at Fife Ness today, and 2 on the Northern Isles.
Also around the village and nearby areas today up to 5 Yellow-browed Warblers, Redstart, Lesser Whitethroat, Whinchat, and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. Pictures of the Brown Shrike will hopefully appear in the next day or two, I didn't manage to get any.
Other news includes the Ring-necked Duck showing intermittently on Meikle Loch. A Little Stint there as well.
Other sightings of Yellow-browed Warbler reported in the reserve as well.
Tomorrow could be interesting, as the weather still looks very good to bring in more delights.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker, Kirkton, Collieston.. |
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