I read the report in the local freebie too. Something Tom didn't mention was that the lass who found it related the encounter to her brother, described as a 'twitcher'. Her name is given as 'Williamson'. Anyone know a birdwatcher of that name? Anyone want to guess what the bird might actually have been?
Well at least that rules all but the very most improbable of other Shrike sp - for a minute I was worried another eastern star had sneaked under the radar!
Don't know any more than that. A guy called Sean Woods writes a local nature column in the Glossop Advertiser and a reader wrote to him saying that she had a bird with a blue-grey head, jet black face mask and coral pink underparts. She saw it at very close range sat on the top of gorse bushes. At the time she didn't know what it was but has since looked it up and is 100% certain that it was a Red-backed Shrike. And presumably a male from the description. The area is pretty underwatched so it's a feasible scenario. None of the nearby Arnfield Res birders know anything either.
Just for your amusement, our other local paper the Glossop Chronicle, once carried the front page story:
LOCAL CELEBRITY GETS MARRIED
The story being about a local man who married a woman. A man marrying a woman. Nothing odd about that you might be thinking. Only the story began:
"Hadfield resident James Saville, known to his friends as Jimmy Saville..."
A late unconfirmed report of a Red-backed Shrike on Hobson Moor by the path to Mossley last Monday. There's a description of the bird in a letter in this week's Glossop Advertiser, which I'm sure you all read and cherish every word.
I let some local birders know about it yesterday, and Bill Underwood has already checked the area this morning. He had crippling views of lots of gorse bushes but no Shrike.
