A Stonechat consolation prize
I don’t normally ‘twitch’ for birds. If there’s a rarity somewhere I’ll usually go about my business as normal, without driving off, knuckles clenched on the steering wheel, desperate for a sighting of a sad, lonely, windblown bird which will never get back to its home across the ocean.
Occasionally I’ll make an exception. There was the Laughing Gull at Slapton, which was a great birthday treat to myself.
Then there was the Great Grey Shrike of Emsworthy Moor. I liked that so much I made a video about it.:
This time there’s a Woodchat Shrike at Dawlish Warren. It’s scorching hot, the bird is miles from the car park, the heat haze is immense and the place is swarming with responsible birders and irresponsible bird photographers. I see it. It’s gorgeous. I watch it hunt and swallow bumblebees. My photographs are awful. And when I say awful, I mean unsharable.
So here are a couple of Stonechats feeding their young which are deep within cover, still so small that they haven’t left the nest. Here’s the male:
And here’s the female:
What a charming couple.