27th October 2024: Woods Mill and Arundel WWT

 We joined a local twitch at Woods Mill nature reserve this morning, seeking an Isabelline Shrike which had been reported the previous day. It was not difficult to find the location of the bird, with a gathered crowd of scopes and cameras! Although not all that close, the bird was faithful to a particular bramble bush, where it would regularly pose on top, before diving out of sight in search of more food.

With Emilie and Kayte in tow, keen to see this rare bird, we were lucky to encounter Terry Allen in the throng, who kindly lowered his scope and enabled Emilie to get good views. Even Michael, with no interest in birds, asked if he could look too.This was a ‘lifer’ for us all.

The bird was rather distant for photos, although Tim managed some blurred record shots. The photo below was taken by him on a return visit the following day.

Isabelline Shrike

The rufous tail is very striking, as shown clearly here, on this 1st year bird.

After enjoying this star bird, and chatting with other local birders, we continued on to Arundel WWT. Alongside the captive birds, this rather elegant Great Egret was another new tick for Emile

Great Egret