I could stand it no longer. This morning I headed for Sutton Park to see the Red-backed Shrike.
It had all the hallmarks of a typical twitch. First navigate your way through unfamiliar territory to the site and follow the instructions from whichever Rare Bird site you follow. On arrival you will be greeted by a dog-walker who tells you he spoke to a birder and "things had gone quiet". After you have digested this puzzling information an actual birder will appear, in this case Nick Barlow, and reassure you that all will be well. The bird is over yonder and you will see it.
At this point, with Nick leaving, another familiar face turned up. I hadn't seen Steve Cawthray for decades, and he was very happy to accompany me to the Shrike and then give me a tour of the best places to see other migrants.
A small group of birders, some also familiar from my misspent youth, were watching the Shrike. What a fabulous bird.
If ever a bird was designed for birders to marvel at it is the Red-backed Shrike. Not only do they perched prominently and look wonderful, they can also put on a show. The above video demonstrates what happens when an unsuspecting bumblebee meets a Red-backed Shrike for the first and last time.
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| Adult male Red-backed Shrike |
In the last four decades I've seen 28 Red-backed Shrikes in the UK, but they've almost all been juveniles. I have to think back to the early 1980s when the last pair bred at Santon Downham in Suffolk to find my previous adult male.
The gorse bush next to the birch favoured by the Shrike briefly supported a Wheatear.
Soon Steve was guiding me towards the Crabs. This turned out to be series of Crab Apple trees where he was sure we would see Redstarts. Did we ever! Without even trying particularly hard we recorded at least 10 Redstarts in about half an hour. Apparently they don't even breed in Sutton Park, they were all migrants.
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| Redstart |
The views were excellent, not like the distant views I generally manage at Morton Bagot. The majority seemed to be males too.
We then headed for the Lower Crabs, where Pete Forbes had seen some Spotted Flycatchers. Soon enough we found them, Steve thought about five. Once again, very photogenic.
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
Finally, a word about Sutton Park. It's an amazing oasis of heather, birch and conifers on the edge of the Birmingham conurbation. I was starting to get a serious attack of patch envy. Admittedly dog-walkers were everywhere, but its so massive that it doesn't matter.
If I lived on the north side of Birmingham I would be there all the time. But as it is, I'll be doing my best at third division Morton Bagot in the autumn all-dayer on Saturday, and that'll be great too.
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