Woodchat Shrike - Lanius senator
Canon 600mm f4 for 1/5000th @ iso400
A scarce visitor to the UK, but one showed up at Daresbury on the side of the Bridgewater canal, spending its time between a pylon and a hawthorn tree underneath the pylon, with occasional visits down the to main railway line running high speed trains from London to Scotland.
The bird was probably one of the most photographed and scoped in the UK during the month of June. A palpable wave of excitement from the birding types all trudging along the canal side to either claim a tick for one of the lists they keep, and in their huddles words such as "lifer" and "county record" could be heard !!!
Nonetheless we did wander the relatively short distance from the fox and her cubs to get a couple of snaps, not sure why we gave it time from the foxes but we did, but only once the initial throng of birding diehards had been, seen, ticked and moved onto the next specimen someone else had spotted for them.
Not a lot to say about it myself, and here is a photo of it doing what it did all day long reducing the local bee population - a feeding habit it was very adept at, catching and spiking its prey on the spikes of the hawthorn or devouring it in one go.
Just like Kingfishers and Owls after having filled on insects it would cough up a pellet consisting of the hard outer cases and other indigestible bits, before starting the process all over again.
A scarce visitor to the UK, but one showed up at Daresbury on the side of the Bridgewater canal, spending its time between a pylon and a hawthorn tree underneath the pylon, with occasional visits down the to main railway line running high speed trains from London to Scotland.
The bird was probably one of the most photographed and scoped in the UK during the month of June. A palpable wave of excitement from the birding types all trudging along the canal side to either claim a tick for one of the lists they keep, and in their huddles words such as "lifer" and "county record" could be heard !!!
Nonetheless we did wander the relatively short distance from the fox and her cubs to get a couple of snaps, not sure why we gave it time from the foxes but we did, but only once the initial throng of birding diehards had been, seen, ticked and moved onto the next specimen someone else had spotted for them.
Not a lot to say about it myself, and here is a photo of it doing what it did all day long reducing the local bee population - a feeding habit it was very adept at, catching and spiking its prey on the spikes of the hawthorn or devouring it in one go.
Just like Kingfishers and Owls after having filled on insects it would cough up a pellet consisting of the hard outer cases and other indigestible bits, before starting the process all over again.