Shrikes

It's great that a pair of red-backed shrikes nested successfully somewhere on Dartmoor this year. 

This news adds to the distinctly 'southern' feel of 2010 - purple heron, little bittern and red-backed shrike!  What's next?

But what is less good is that this pair was visited by known egg collectors during the summer.  RSPB staff and volunteers (and others) were involved in guarding the nest - and it was certainly needed.  What a shame that the first tentative steps at recolonisation (we hope) could have been snuffed out by illegal persecution of the first colonising birds.

It's 18 years since red-backed shrikes last nested successfully in England - and yet only a hundred years ago they were common across southern England. 

Red-backed shrikes have declined across most of their European breeding range - probably through reductions in the availability of large juicy insects such as grasshoppers and beetles.

Last year in northern Spain I watched families of red-backed shrikes feeding in the meadows - such sights would have been common in southern England a century ago but many of today's birdwatchers have only seen these birds as east coast autumn migrants or abroad.  Shifting baselines again.

It would be great if their successful breeding season this year meant that these shrikes will be back next year and perhaps in a couple of decades we can look back and celebrate the (climate change assisted?) return of the red-backed shrike.  But let's not count our shrikes before they are back from Africa, and if they do come back then so, no doubt, will the egg collectors for another go.

PS Great coverage from Mike McCarthy in today's Independent.