Monday 23 June 2014

Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius Minor)- No.212

So the this blog post is pretty much that I headed up to Baltasound and I managed to see the Lesser Grey Shrike which had been seen there and this brought my Shetland List up to 212 species of bird but I'll put it in more detail.

I'll just write a bit about the Lesser Grey Shrike here- The Lesser Grey Shirke (Lanius Minor) is a member of the Shrike family (Laniidae) which breeds in South and Central Europe as well as Western Asia and the bird winter in Southern Africa.
They tend to hunt for insects and occasionally small rodents, they are classed as a "Least Concern" specie as globally they are not threatened.

On Friday the 20th I was heading into Unst and seeing as I had a bit of time to spare before I had to go elsewhere I decided that I would try and get the Lesser Grey Shrike which had been found earlier on in the week.
After being five minutes in Baltasound I was picked up by Robbie Brookes and we headed off to see the bird, within about a minute of being by the airport (the birds location) we had seen it! No. 212 on my Shetland List and a lifer!
The bird was a piece off and I got some "record" shots to go along with the sighting

The Shrike was a cracking bird to see and I'm glad it hung about!

 Can't see it well in this photo but the birds have a pinky belly whereas the Great Grey Shrike doesn't

120 times zoom, no tripod and here's the result

So we looked at the bird and went again, probably one of my quickest hunts for a rarity but I have to thank Rob for taking me to see the bird, I might not of found it without him!