''Just an afternoon twitch''

A Steppe Grey Shrike has been present on Texel since Saturday. In the weekend I didn't have the time to twitch it, but because it's such a rare bird, I couldn't resist to go there. With two friends from my study we made the plan to go yesterday!

After we'd had our math lesson in the morning we got on the bus and there we went. After a 2:50 hour lasting train ride to Den-Helder, arriving there 13:45, we got on the ferry of 14:30. Everything went smooth and just before we entered the harbor of Texel we had a nice fly-by of a Woodcock, barely managing not to drown in the water.

Around 14:50 we had finally entered the island. We rented a bike and off we went. The place where the bird had been seen was quite close to the harbour, so it took us only 10 minutes to get there.

As we arrived, the bird was in view immediately! Awesome! It did some foraging on the field, sitting on some small poles and it sat perched in a bush. We only had our binoculars with us, but we could watch through someone else's scope, but that was not really needed since the bird showed at 5-10 metres distance, haha.

The bird is 1cy bird, amongst others, it has moulted 1 of its primaries, and about half of its greater coverts are moulted, it shows a really clear moult limit!

We enjoyed the bird and took some Iphone-scoped photos, with a very pleasing result.

Steppe Grey Shrike (Lanius pallidirostris), 1cy iPhone-scoped

Tommy and Koen at the twitch

Enjoying the bird for one hour or so - seeing it catch a mouse - we decided to check some other birding places too. We wanted to look for the reported Black Stork just north-east of the harbour. It was a pity that we weren't able to find it, but we saw 100s of Fieldfares, Blackbirds and Redwings, together with some 60 Snipes and a late Barn Swallow!

And then at last, a long trip home was awaiting us again!