WOODCHAT SHRIKE in Warwickshire

Woodchat Shrike - Brandon Marsh, Warwickshire - May 2013
Photo by Adam Archer

Lanius lightning struck twice over at Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve this morning when their second WOODCHAT SHRIKE in four years was found. Unlike the distant Newlands shrike on the 29 May 2009, this particular bird showed very well indeed near the old farm along Brandon Lane. I managed to  connect with it this evening where it performed like a star hunting from a couple of small bramble patches, when it was not being dive bombed by the local Barn Swallows.  

Woodchat Shrike - Brandon Marsh, Warwickshire - May 2013
Photo by Adam Archer

This was only the fifth ever sighting of this Continental rarity for the entire West Midlands region. The initial record was from way back on the 14th May 1893 when a pair was allegedly found at Weatheroak Hill in Worcestershire. It was not until a staggering 106 years later before another turned up, this time a handsome male at Sutton Park in the West Midlands which stayed from the 1st to the 14th June 1999. The next was the aforementioned Brandon Marsh bird in 2009 followed by another, this time a juvenile at Whitemoor Haye, Staffordshire on 8th September 2010.

Woodchat Shrike - Brandon Marsh, Warwickshire - May 2013
Photo by Adam Archer

Other birds on site included several calling Cuckoo, my first of the year as well as singing Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler.