77 : Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike - Lanius senator

I was inspired today to go crawling in the desert. I have been reading a book called the Jewel Hunter by a chap called Chris Goodie. This is Chris Site .Chris gave up everything to go crawling through the jungle (literally) looking for very rare and elusive ground dwelling birds called Pittas. There are 32 species of them and they all live primary rain forest from Africa through the Indian subcontinent and right down into the muckiest parts of South East Asia and on into the Pacific. Chris decided he wanted to see all 32 species in a year. Some people spend 20 years looking and never see some Pitta species. Parts of the book are interesting in respect of the lengths you have to go to to see a Pitta and the techniques. Chris view is that you get down on the floor, make yourself small and look like a non-threatening tree or bush if you can. Hours of being bitten by leaches, insects, avoiding snakes, getting cut by rattan in the steamy dirty jungles of the world. All to see some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet.

A bit like a child who has just seen a war film I went out playing at jungle birding this morning. I went to an abandoned dusty building site which is now fairly overgrown and that I know has a few good birds on it. I slipped past the security guards (got thrown out later by a bloke in an official looking 4x4 who just smiled and pointed to the exit). I got down and dusty all morning. If I could see or hear a bird I got down and crawled a few paces at a time taking shots as I went in to see how close I could get. I think I pretty much got to within 4 or 5 feet of the shrub that this Shrike was perched on. Generally Shrikes are pretty hardy individuals anyway but I felt it worked better than walking toward one bolt upright looking like a man pointing a shooty thing (even if it was a camera). Of course I could get a better camera and a longer lens to save my knees but given that field craft will win the day when I go out for my Pittas I may as well learn some animal cunning now. I am jungle training. My wife laughed and said that I had worn my kaki shorts for the first time in years. The more I read the more I know that seeing every bird in the world and taking a picture of it is impossible.  I am going to get dirty trying though and it is more fun than the day job.

More about this bird. I think this is a male bird on the way through north on migration and stopping for a refuel. Woodchat Shrike do overwinter in Dubai from what I can gather but this is the first bird  I have seen. I think this is the second species of Shrike I have posted up so far (see post 13 Brown Shrike for a fuller description of this pugnacious little family of birds). They are real favouries with me. They are always munching dragon flies or carting off little lizards. The last one I saw was in July 2000 on honeymoon in Umbria.

I popped into the Pivot Fields later and saw another shrike propped up on one of the big pivots themselves. The water sprayers were on and it was a buffet for birds as all the insects must have been driven out of the turf to the surface. I attach my distant view from my "'car hide" - I was not going to go crawling through a puddle in front of 30 Pakistani workmen. I have limits - crawling strictly on my tod I think.

From the eye mask this second bird is a male. I think it may be Isabelline as it lacks the pied white markings. If it is an Isabelline that will be a life tick for me. I need to hit the books.

Some days the birds are just flowing like a river through Dubai - passage is most certainly on. I am now celebrating two Shrikes (and a possible Isabelline which is a life tick for me) with cold beer and happily editing all the sneaky new pictures I took this morning. Birding life doesn't get any better.

Woodchat Shrike, Lanius senator
Warsan Pits/abandoned villas, Dubai UAE
10 March 2012