Red Backed Shrike
At the start of Autumn this year, I became aware that there was an adult male red backed shrike in Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, not far from my home. Now, it’s fair to say that I was not the first or even the second person to become aware of this shrike. In fact, knowledge of this shrike’s presence quickly spread throughout the local and national bird watching and wildlife photography communities. Being a relative rarity, shrikes can be found in the United Kingdom on passage during their annual migrations but they are now only scarce breeders here, this little bird rapidly became a must see and photograph bird with bird watchers and photographers travelling from all over the country hoping to see and photograph it.
With the restrictions on activities and travel imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, I really enjoyed being outside and spending time with nature when I was allowed to do so. Being less than an hour from my home and in a really lovely country park, the shrike was just too good to miss.
Together with a good photographer friend, I spent a couple of days in Sutton Park watching and photographing this beautiful male shrike. The weather was pleasant and it was a pleasure to be outside after the lockdown earlier in the year. We found the shrike to be very tolerant of human presence and, with great care, we were able to make images of it without causing any disturbance or interfering with its behaviour. On one lovely evening, we were joined by one of the Park’s Rangers who was checking on how things were going and we spent a pleasant hour watching the shrike together and chatting about the Park and speculating about the shrike’s origins.
Shortly after I had photographed the shrike it left the Park, presumably continuing its autumn migration. Before departing, the shrike had given many people a much needed welcome respite from the grim reality of the Covid-19 pandemic, proving yet again the healing power of nature.
The image gallery below is a collection of images I made of this beautiful little bird during the time I spent with it, if you click on an image it will open full size and you can them scroll through the rest of the enlarged images.
Red backed shrikes are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 - Schedule 1 which protects these birds and their young, making it an offence to intentionally or recklessly disturb them at, on or near an active nest. When it was photographed, this shrike was not at, on or near an active nest and, in any event, it was not in its breeding season. On the days I photographed this shrike, I personally did not witness anyone (either a bird watcher, photographer or member of the public) behaving anything less than properly towards it.
All of the images in the above gallery were taken with my Nikon 600mm f4 lens with a teleconverter attached. Some of the images were made using my 46mp Nikon D850 and cropped in post processing to give a closer perspective. No bait or calls were used to attract the shrike. At all times when photographing the shrike it was not disturbed and continued behaving naturally which was a pleasure to watch.