Lesser Grey Shrike at last.
12th June 2022
I’ve photographed all six of the Shrikes likely to be seen in Europe and have managed to get reasonable shots of five; Woodchat, Masked, Red Backed, Great Grey and Isabelline. However, the sixth, Lesser Grey has been particularly elusive for me, seemingly avoiding my lens at all costs, I have come close on Lesvos before but the sun was against me and there was nothing I could do because of the terrain, which was extremely frustrating. Also in Bulgaria our guide Dimiter, (top birder), drove me with great care quite close to a perched bird but just as we got in shooting range the bird flew off - mega frustrating!! This time I made it a target bird for the trip and very early one morning at first light, Susan and I drove a very rough track between the towns of Eressos and Sigri on Lesvos. This track can be unpassable some years because of rock falls and other problems, however, reports were that it was passable currently. Climbing out of Eressos immediately there was a Lesser Grey Shrike on a fence post thirty feet away I reached for my lens behind my seat but it was too late and the bird was gone. We waited for five minutes to see if it would return, but no luck – mega mega frustrating.
On we go and soon it became apparent that there had been a big fall of birds because there were Red Backed Shrikes everywhere we counted at least a hundred birds as we drove slowly along the road. There were also many Spotted Flycatchers all along the track. We also encountered a few Woodchat Shrikes as we would expect, but our main quarry was conspicuous by its absence. Black Headed Buntings were apparent and you can get a lot of these birds most springs. We reached the bottom of the valley and stopped for a belated breakfast and above us five Woodlarks were singing from overhead wires, a nicer way to enjoy breakfast is hard to imagine. Further on two Ruddy Shelduck were on the now nearly dried up river bed and a Little Bittern showed briefly from a small area of reeds while Bee Eaters constantly flew around.
Along a line of bushes we had Orphean and Icterine Warblers though they both skulked in the foliage. This is the type of birding you get on Lesvos, and back home in the UK if I had a tenth of the birds seen I would be talking about it for years. We spoke to another birder who came along and I asked him if he had had any Lesser Grey Shrikes and he answered disappointingly in the negative.
We drove on with the sound of Nightingales resonating from roadside thickets and Cretzschmar’s Buntings darting around the rocky slopes. We stopped to watch a Red Backed Shrike that was perched on a roadside fence post when Susan whispered ‘Lesser Grey Shrike ahead’ - I went into alert mode - for me this is a mixture of fear and excitement, one the prospect of getting a shot of a much wanted bird and the other the fear of missing out again. We crept closer hardly daring to move but it flew off onto a line of steel reinforcing bars that are used for fencing posts on Lesvos. I manoeuvred the car into the best possible position and just waited. It now became a war of nerves between us and the bird, but after about five minutes it started to make its way closer probably after assessing that we weren’t a threat. You have to stay put in your vehicle in these situations, once you ‘Crack’ and get out it will be all over. Closer and closer it came across the posts, it seemed interminable, but finally I had a shot, the light was still harsh, but it wasn’t too bad and I wanted more.
I let the clutch out and inched closer off the track on to a bare patch of ground about fifteen feet nearer and unbelievably the bird tolerated me and I had another shot and then he flared his tail slightly which was a better shot.
I was realising a dream now. I couldn’t get any closer without getting out so I had to accept what I had and the bird flew off and away anyway – WOW!!
I was made up after this and anything else would be a bonus but just as we were coming to the end of the track by some old farm sheds, absolutely unbelievably there was another Lesser Grey on the fence in a much better position than the previous bird. I couldn’t believe it, the famous comment from the 1966 world cup final came to mind – ‘They thought it was all over’ etc. Again it flew off out a sight but we inched forward and there it was in an even better position, conditions were also perfect now because a small cloud had moved across the sun diffusing the hitherto harsh light – a dream shot.
I’m not particularly religious but I was praying now. I stopped the engine then I tentatively put my bean bag on the door of the car and then rested my little Sigma lens on it and the bird snapped into focus, what a feeling as I took the shot, all these years and there it was ‘In the can’ to use motion picture parlance.
What a great drive along this valley and just as we were entering the outskirts of the town of Sigri flocks of birds were passing in front of the car. I wasn’t paying too much attention because I was concentrating on the road. I just said casually to Susan look at all those sparrows, hundreds of them. We stopped to get a closer look and incredibly we could now see they were Spotted Flycatchers! There must have been, with the birds we had seen along the track, around 500 Spotted Flycatchers - a mega fall of this species. A fine end to an eventful morning.
On we go and soon it became apparent that there had been a big fall of birds because there were Red Backed Shrikes everywhere we counted at least a hundred birds as we drove slowly along the road. There were also many Spotted Flycatchers all along the track. We also encountered a few Woodchat Shrikes as we would expect, but our main quarry was conspicuous by its absence. Black Headed Buntings were apparent and you can get a lot of these birds most springs. We reached the bottom of the valley and stopped for a belated breakfast and above us five Woodlarks were singing from overhead wires, a nicer way to enjoy breakfast is hard to imagine. Further on two Ruddy Shelduck were on the now nearly dried up river bed and a Little Bittern showed briefly from a small area of reeds while Bee Eaters constantly flew around.
Along a line of bushes we had Orphean and Icterine Warblers though they both skulked in the foliage. This is the type of birding you get on Lesvos, and back home in the UK if I had a tenth of the birds seen I would be talking about it for years. We spoke to another birder who came along and I asked him if he had had any Lesser Grey Shrikes and he answered disappointingly in the negative.
We drove on with the sound of Nightingales resonating from roadside thickets and Cretzschmar’s Buntings darting around the rocky slopes. We stopped to watch a Red Backed Shrike that was perched on a roadside fence post when Susan whispered ‘Lesser Grey Shrike ahead’ - I went into alert mode - for me this is a mixture of fear and excitement, one the prospect of getting a shot of a much wanted bird and the other the fear of missing out again. We crept closer hardly daring to move but it flew off onto a line of steel reinforcing bars that are used for fencing posts on Lesvos. I manoeuvred the car into the best possible position and just waited. It now became a war of nerves between us and the bird, but after about five minutes it started to make its way closer probably after assessing that we weren’t a threat. You have to stay put in your vehicle in these situations, once you ‘Crack’ and get out it will be all over. Closer and closer it came across the posts, it seemed interminable, but finally I had a shot, the light was still harsh, but it wasn’t too bad and I wanted more.
I let the clutch out and inched closer off the track on to a bare patch of ground about fifteen feet nearer and unbelievably the bird tolerated me and I had another shot and then he flared his tail slightly which was a better shot.
I was realising a dream now. I couldn’t get any closer without getting out so I had to accept what I had and the bird flew off and away anyway – WOW!!
I was made up after this and anything else would be a bonus but just as we were coming to the end of the track by some old farm sheds, absolutely unbelievably there was another Lesser Grey on the fence in a much better position than the previous bird. I couldn’t believe it, the famous comment from the 1966 world cup final came to mind – ‘They thought it was all over’ etc. Again it flew off out a sight but we inched forward and there it was in an even better position, conditions were also perfect now because a small cloud had moved across the sun diffusing the hitherto harsh light – a dream shot.
I’m not particularly religious but I was praying now. I stopped the engine then I tentatively put my bean bag on the door of the car and then rested my little Sigma lens on it and the bird snapped into focus, what a feeling as I took the shot, all these years and there it was ‘In the can’ to use motion picture parlance.
What a great drive along this valley and just as we were entering the outskirts of the town of Sigri flocks of birds were passing in front of the car. I wasn’t paying too much attention because I was concentrating on the road. I just said casually to Susan look at all those sparrows, hundreds of them. We stopped to get a closer look and incredibly we could now see they were Spotted Flycatchers! There must have been, with the birds we had seen along the track, around 500 Spotted Flycatchers - a mega fall of this species. A fine end to an eventful morning.