A week ago, I took part in my first real twitch - just 20 minutes from home! On that occasion views were only distant, due to the reluctance of birders to use the footpath where the bird was showing, in order not to disturb it. Since then, views have changed, and twitchers have been able to gain far better views ( and photographs) by walking along the footpath and watching from the wall between the path and the field, just at the point where the two county borders meet ( Glos and Oxon) .
Having seen other people's photos on various blogs, I decided I would visit for a second time (and many birders have visited more than this), so this morning I parked in the allocated car parking field at 8 am, where the number of cars was significantly lower, than over the past week and an honesty box replaced the bucket and volunteers who last week stood at the field entrance.s
It was a slightly longer walk to where this morning's birders were already gathered, but the long tailed shrike was showing already, in a bramble bush along the county border, and sometimes flying to a neighbouring hawthorn tree where it perched in open view. Much of the time it sat motionless in its chosen position, occasionally flying to the ground to catch a grasshopper, or on one occasion, a small vole.
Most of the time the shrike sat in Oxfordshire, but once flew around to the other side of the bush and perched on a wire fence - this time in Gloucestershire.
I was pleased to have much better views today, together with some reasonable photos to record this exceedingly rare visitor to the UK, the last recorded year being 26 years ago.
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