Having gone too far up the road to Polvidan, turned back and saw a guy with a bird telescope on the side of the road. Got out and asked him if he was looking for the shrike. He said he was looking at it right now and let me take a look. Sure enough, there it was, on the top of an old tree trunk in a reforested area.
Turns out it is a bloke called Brian Henderson of SOC who is writing a study on shrikes in Scotland! So he was able to pass me on a load of further information. Seemingly the shrike has been eating voles and lizards (in January!) and has also taken a coal tit. It has teeth in its bill to break the neck of its prey, eats the head then leaves the rest stuck on a tree stump for later. Except in this case, a kestrel stole one of its dead voles. Brian has been looking for the pellets it regurgitates and sending them for analysis. He wants to know why they eat the heads of their prey.
He has also told me there are merlins in the area. Overall a very successful day. I took a quick walk through the forest further South and there is a lot of walking potential. All of a sudden I know how I'm going to spend the rest of the winter!
On the way back to the car, I saw a kestrel nosing around the woodpile, as if looking for more dead voles.
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