Shrike Zone

Although now considered virtually extinct in Britain as breeding birds, Red-backed Shrikes were, apparently, once common in the UK and particularly in what is now the A1 area of Bedfordshire; so it was fitting that when one decided to visit the county last weekend it chose the same area for a stopover - on this occasion Biggleswade Common.

We had good views of the adult female bird - perching in the open, and occasionally dropping into vegetation to catch prey. Don’t you just love it how some birds can keep their head still while everything else attached to it moves with the breeze...