THE EASTLEACH SHRIKE AGAIN

I paid my  third (and final?) visit to  Eastleach Downs yesterday to see the Long Tailed shrike which has been resident there for the past month. I gather that it has been  undergoing a moult which would explain its long stay, it certainly hasn't been short of food, with plenty of grasshoppers and the occasional small rodent amongst its food. Over the past couple of weeks it has been perched frequently along a fence line and on long stemmed grasses only 20 feet from the path, returning to roost in a bramble bush adjacent to the path. I'd seen many reports of how well it had been showing,  accompanied by some excellent close photos, so with a few free hours I drove the  twenty minutes from home over to the field car park before walking the quarter mile or so to the footpath which passes alongside the shrike's favourite locations. 

There was only a handful of cars in the carpark and about 8 - 10 people with cameras waiting for the shrike to make an appearance after having disappeared for the past half hour. I was assured it would return, and it wasn't long before it did. The bird perched along the wire fence, watching the dried grass below it for anything it could feed on. Occasionally it would  drop down then appear further along, sometimes on the wire, or a post, or on some tall plants. It wasn't always easy to get a clear sighting   through the long grass but when you did, it gave great views as  perched almost still for several minutes before moving along to its next look out point. 

Several visitors had travelled south from places such as Manchester and Birmingham to see it, and a few mentioned that they'd even  been up to Scotland to see the one which was seen a few weeks before, but had only seen a small shape through a 'scope of binoculars. Certainly that was my experience on my first visit, but since then it has provided closer and closer views. I wonder how much longer it will stay, it has certainly given many birders a lot of pleasure to see a Long Tailed shrike at such close proximity.