Lesser Grey Shrike – Great Wakering, Essex, 22^nd August 1989

What’s this???? Minshull twitches a Lesser and is successful? Yes thanks, although it would have been far better without the military intervention.

Sunday the 27th August 1989 saw me on another twitch from St. Albans with Mike Thompson and Pete Ewer. This involved us travelling out into the wilds of the Essex marshes beyond Southend-on-Sea and Great Wakering. Here a Lesser Grey Shrike had been for the past ten days. The only problem was that it was extremely distant, in a location bordering a military danger zone.
After winning a spot the dot competition dissatisfaction with the view lead to persistence beyond the call of duty.

We encircled the birds’ position and eventually it surrendered to one of the scouts. Despite the range good views were achieved, allowing the diagnostic features of the plumage to be ‘scoped, including the wrap around black mask, wide white secondary flash, pink flush(?) on the breast, etc..

Not the best of views of what was still evidently a stunning bird.

This was rectified in September 1994 when my ex- Gillian and I got very good views of one at Elie in Fife.

Two less than prize-winning images of my second Lesser Grey Shrike near Elie, Fife in September 1994.