the most famous bird in Scotland

 

On Wednesday the 18th I caught a train to Dunbar to see the most famous bird in Scotland. Not an osprey or white-tailed eagle but one about the size of a blackbird which had adopted Wintergreen Golf Course as a home from home for about a week. 

It was a Steppe Grey Shrike, one of those surprise exotic migrants that likely got blown off course and should be nearer remote areas of Asia (Afghanistan or similar.) It is a sub-species of Great Grey Shrike but rarer yet - apparently this is only the second one recorded in Scotland. You may recall my visiting a Great Grey Shrike in Dalkeith Country Park (blog here - there is even mention of the Steppe Grey Shrike!) in March 2023. It was a fairly underwhelming experience and my least favourite way to interact with wildlife; to stand in a car park with 20 other folk with long lens cameras waiting for a bird to appear. However today was much better. Firstly the weather was perfect. Blue skies from the moment I stepped off the Dunbar train. 

I ran a mile or 2 from the station (off the 10am train) to the cliff top paths round the golf course. There were only 3 or 4 birders about (identifiable from binoculars and cameras) and they seemed to be relaxing and chatting. And then a small, light grey bird hopped up onto the red stone wall that separates the golf course from the cliff-top path. It was happy to sit there as disinterested dogwalkers passed by within a metre or 2. Really it was unperturbed about human proximity and would hop within yards of passers-by as it hunted for insects in the short grass. 

red admiral enjoying the sunshine

While I am interested in most aspects of the birding world I am not a twitcher and I don't have a tick list. I was reluctant to visit this oddity because it attracts those sort of people and I don't like standing in a queue to photograph a bird that may or may not be visible that particular day. A pal Malcolm who lives locally encouraged me to go along as it was "showing well" a phrase meaning you'll likely have no problems getting a photo. He was right and I found it to be a hugely obliging little poser who almost seemed to enjoy sitting for the photographers. Chances are it had had little or no contact with humans before now and since they posed no threat it was even more tame, less flighty, than the local robins. It was this, and its attractive appearance, that had me stay taking photos for longer than the 10 minutes I planned to take - to get a quick photo then head off. I was there for over 90minutes. And it felt like half that, with the bird in camera-range nearly the whole time.

Initially I took some shots on the path side of the wall but then went round to the gold course side as the sun was coming from that direction and lighting the bird slightly better from there. And most of the serious long-lens crew were on the other side of the wall. Birder numbers grew over the next hour and they were maybe into double figures by the time I left. Everyone was very well bahaved and there was no sign of camouflaged hooligans pushing forward to crowd the bird (as I'd heard mention of on a facebook group.) The fact was, if you waited long enough the bird would hop over to where you were standing and pose beautifully. I started taking photos about 15~20 yards away from it but slowly it came much closer and I just waited for it to come to me.

other side of the wall

Berwick Law background

There was a local wildlife artist Darren Woodhead, sat on the grass over near a teeing-off area - not sure which hole. He seemed to be doing studies of the shrike and/or a weasel which was eyeing things up from a hole in the wall. This, the weasel, seemed to be the only casualty of the paparazzi coming to see the shrike. I think it took one look at all the humans approaching its territory and decided to move home. More on that later.

The shrike would hop around the grass looking for insects and beetles. Every now and then it would fly up to the wall and pose against the sky. I couldn't believe when it landed right in front of this guy and his long lens. However I had a much closer encounter a short while later.

this woman would have been closer than 2m but it didn't fly off

this was just a yawn but every now and then
it regurgitated a pellet of beetle and insect corpses

It also has a nickname of butcher-bird. This is because, like the Great Grey Shrike they will catch and dismember small rodents. A photo of it with a vole in its beak on Lothian Birdwatch was the final incentive to get a train to Dunbar. They are known to hang mice and voles on the thorns of bushes near their nests, like an outdoor larder. 

It hopped about like it owned the place, completely disregarding the photographers, golfers and dogwalkers. Many of the golfers knew about it as it had been here for a week already. It spent a little while on the cliff side of the path and I was leaning against the wall (on the golf course side) taking photos, when it caught an insect and hopped up onto the wall less than 2 metres from where I was standing. Robins are about the only local bird that would dare to be so bold. I tried to get some close-ups although it was almost too close for my 100~400 lens. 

about a metre and a half away

moments later it was back onto the path
and this shot shows how comfortable it was with humans

It flew back up onto the wall and although shooting towards the sun I thought these shots were among the best of the day. Again it was less than 3m away.

It then fancied a stroll on the short grass of the golf course. The 2 golfers about to tee-off stopped as it went absurdly close to them. They were asking why was it so tame. And while the answer might be that it comes from a place with very few humans and so it just isn't used to them, nobody was really sure. And nobody was chasing it about, so perhaps it felt perfectly at home. Someone did say it had the sense to make itself scarce when a sparrowhawk or some other bird of prey flew overhead.

'fore!

I had seen Joanie had got a good shot of the bird with the Bass Rock behind it earlier in the week. I tried to get the angle right to do similar. It wasn't too hard with such an obliging subject.

the one that got away

a pipit trying to get in on the action

the army of paprazzi was growing in numbers

The weasel, mentioned earlier, was perhaps the only one that suffered from the influx of photographers. It decided to move home and it had a nest of 6 kits to move too. At regular intervals it would run a hundred and twenty yards with a baby weasel in its mouth, to a patch of rough further down the course. It mostly ran alongside the wall and sometimes back by a different route. I felt that we might well have inadvertently been responsible for its move. It would dash at top speed with a kit bobbing madly in its mouth as it galloped across the grass.

I shot some video, but after witnessing a couple of runs, I felt I had seen enough and left the poor weasel in peace. The shrike was not bothered at all by the growing number of humans. In fact it had its eye on the weasel babies. I believe the parent weasel dropped one at one point and the shrike looked like it was about to take it. Darren the artist jumped up and discouraged it, unable to bear the consequences. Last I heard all 6 kits made it to a new home. The shrike may have been able to kill and eat a baby weasel but the parent was more than a match for this bold bird. However you can see it having a think about it in this video clip.

mostly the weasel moving kits although at 34s the shrike 

makes an appearance but has the sense not to intervene

And that was that for shrike action. I headed off and missed the second vole assassination of the week. However I felt I had had a good interview with this rare bird and found it to be very charming and obliging. And was glad I'd had the chance as it disappeared, maybe homeward bound, before the end of the week. Various birders travelled quite some distance to catch sight of it. I only had to spend 30 mins on the train from Edinburgh. And I had plans for the rest of the day too: to run along past East Links Farm and up the Tyne to East Linton where I'd get lunch in the coop. And then maybe over to North Berwick. 

There were starling next the golf course but I didn't get very close to them.

pair of common darters on the wall beside the JMW

dipper on the Biel

East Links Farm

Parasol mushroom

non-information board

a favourite spot

along the trails to East Linton

East Linton

Preston Mill

speckled wood

using the DJI Pocket to take pics

On the way into East Linton there is an orchard just along from the Kirk. Thinking there might be commas and red admirals feeding on the fallen rotten apples I had a mooch around. None on the apples but this red admiral was in the middle of some flowering ivy busily flicking its wings to keep the bees and wasps at bay.

admiral gets tackled from behind by a wasp

I bought my lunch - a sandwich and Portuguese custard tart - at the coop. I felt I had had the best of the day and rather than plod across to NB, I would catch the train home from the new station here. It is a desolate platform with zero facilities and the trains can be few and far between. On the way to the station I saw this late flowering buddleia with 3 (or maybe 5) red admirals and a small tortoiseshell. Nice to see some wildlife as the riverside trails had produced none whatsoever. (No kingfishers, otters or butterflies.)

small tortoiseshell

When I got to the station there was nothing but bad news. Next train 2hrs 58mins. Okay, the bus it is. I wandered a last mile to the bus stop passing some peacocks in a garden on the way. I had less than 20 minutes to wait for the bus. I fell asleep just as we got to the outskirts of Edinburgh.

at the bus stop

that statue

mostly 10miles in 5hrs