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Red backed Shrike - Lanius collurio
Male - Sutton CF
The red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) is a carnivorous passerine bird and member of the shrike family Laniidae. The breeding range stretches from Western Europe east to central Russia but it only rarely occurs in the British Isles. It is migratory and winters in the western areas of tropical Africa.
Once a common migratory visitor to Great Britain, numbers declined sharply during the 20th century. The bird's last stronghold was in Breckland but by 1988 just a single pair remained, successfully raising young at Santon Downham. The following year for the first time no nests were recorded in the UK. But since then sporadic breeding has taken place, mostly in Scotland and Wales. In September 2010 the RSPB announced that a pair had raised chicks at a secret location on Dartmoor where the bird last bred in 1970. In 2011, two pairs nested in the same locality, fledging seven young. In 2012 there was another breeding attempt, this time unsuccessful, probably due to a prolonged spell of wet weather. In 2013 breeding was again confirmed in Devon, with two young fledged at a new site.
This return to south western England has been an unexpected development and has raised speculation that a warming climate could assist the bird in re-colonising some of its former haunts, if only in small numbers.
Population:
UK breeding:
1-3 pairs
UK passage:
250 birds
A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.
― William Styron
This image is for my friend, Chris. Her amazing photography is here : www.flickr.com/photos/97556096@N06
***** Todos piensan en cambiar el mundo, pero nadie piensa en cambiarse a sí mismo.
***** Everybody thinks of changing the world, but nobody thinks of changing themselves.
A cold and lonely location, but still magical in its own way. Out yonder in Lake Superior, Michigan.
Brescia (Lombardia), Italy, 2019
PASSAGES SERIES - Passages, speeches, thoughts, notes, places, footprints...
SERIE PASSAGENS - Passagens, falas, pensamentos, bilhetes, lugares, pegadas...
Quartering the topmost branches of one of the tall trees, an invisible bird was striving to make the day seem shorter, exploring with a long-drawn note the solitude that pressed it on every side, but it received at once so unanimous an answer, so powerful a repercussion of silence and of immobility, that one felt it had arrested for all eternity the moment which it had been trying to make pass more quickly.
― Marcel Proust