Another bird with a duplicated genus and species--yay! I don't know why I find that so fun, but I do. In any case, on Skomer Island, we were told that there are 2 species of shrikes that have been seen there, so I was hoping to find one. Shrikes are tiny but interestingly vicious birds who will take down a vole and tie it to one of the wires on a barbed wire fence for eating later. I've never seen it myself, but I've seen photos of it, and it's creepy but so fascinating. I thought I had captured one on video because for the brief moments that I saw it, the coloring seemed the same as most shrikes I'm aware of: grey with black streaks. But later on, when I had time to sit down and ID it, it turned out to be a wheatear. I wasn't too upset about that because I have never seen a wheatear before either, so no matter what, I was contributing to my bird count of all the different species I've seen in my life, and all the new species I saw on my Skomer Island trip. I wasn't able to get too many photos of it, but I figure if it's good enough to help ID it, it's a good enough photo. This is another bird that listed as a somewhat at-risk bird on the RSPB website but not at risk in the field guide they produce. I'll assume that the website is updated info from whenever the book was last published.
Update August 3, 2023: While visiting Sumburgh head on Shetland, I got a photo of the female. Of course, she isn't as striking in terms of contrasting colours, but I love her buff colours, which are warm and golden. What do you think?
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