With birding largely reduced to short days out and the same species turning up on each visit, Kev and I have been spending more time watching butterflies and, inevitably, dragonflies and damselflies. We'd also taken in some tennis at Eastbourne for a week, travelling and spending time with friends. Everything changed on Sunday when news broke of a long-tailed shrike at Crail, Fife. Unfortunately, I was tied up on both Monday and Tuesday, leaving Wednesday as my first chance to go. Kev wasn't tempted by the prospect of the long drive, so this would be a solo trip. If time allowed on the way home, I'd also try to call in and see my mum and one of my brothers.
On Wednesday morning I was showered, packed and ready, waiting only for confirmation that the bird had remained overnight. Thankfully the early updates started appearing on the WhatsApp groups and BirdGuides, allowing for an early departure. At 5.31am the message I'd been waiting for arrived - the bird was still present. I grabbed my optics and overnight bag and headed north for Fife, stopping only once enroute for breakfast and a comfort break.
The bird had been discovered near Crail and proved remarkably faithful to the area, remaining long enough for thousands of birders to catch up with it. It was identified as a first-summer male, showing the classic combination of a black face mask and crown, grey nape, chestnut back and rump, pale underparts and a long black tail.
Its appearance was of huge significance. Before the Crail bird, Britain had recorded just one accepted long-tailed shrike, a first-winter bird on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides during November 2000. That individual became the stuff of birding folklore as severe weather made travel to the islands extremely difficult. Birders chartered boats and even aircraft in desperate attempts to reach it, but many failed before the bird disappeared, leaving relatively few fortunate enough to add it to their British lists.
The Crail bird was found by Ian Redfield, a visiting American ornithology student from Colorado who is spending the summer in Fife assisting with corn bunting surveys. While birding farmland near Thirdpart House, just outside Crail, Ian noticed a shrike that immediately struck him as unusual. Although unfamiliar with European shrikes, he recognised it wasn't quite right and sent photographs to local birder Chris Gomersall of Wild Crail, who circulated the images with the cautious message: "Probably lesser grey shrike. Small chance of long-tailed shrike."
The photographs then caught the attention of experienced birder Jared Wilson, who suggested that the seemingly improbable possibility of a long-tailed shrike should be taken seriously. Once the bird was relocated and studied properly, its rich chestnut upperparts, long tail and other diagnostic features confirmed the identification, making it only the second accepted long-tailed shrike ever recorded in Britain and the first for mainland Britain.
The discovery is a reminder of just how important it is to question first impressions. The bird could easily have been written off as a more familiar shrike species, but sharp observation, combined with Jared Wilson's willingness to consider an exceptionally rare identification, resulted in one of the most memorable British birding discoveries of recent decades.
I arrived at the fruit farm shop, where a volunteer directed me to a parking space. A team of volunteers was doing an excellent job of managing the stream of visiting birders while ensuring the normal business of the farm shop could continue uninterrupted. With my optics collected, I set off along the track running parallel to the road before turning onto a tarmac path leading towards a house and outbuildings, where a gathering of birders had assembled. It was a walk of almost a mile from the car park.
As I approached, a couple walking back towards me delivered some worrying news: the bird hadn't been seen for over two and a half hours. What! After a seven-hour drive, that wasn't what I wanted to hear. Fortunately, before disappointment had time to set in, I noticed a ripple of excitement spread through the assembled birders. As I reached them, the long-tailed shrike appeared on the low branches of a distant hedgerow. I managed a quick look through a local birder's scope before setting up my own scope, then enjoyed another brief view before it dropped back into cover. A lifer ticked.
I crossed to the opposite side of the hedge, joining another 30–40 birders watching the same stretch of hedge, and settled down to wait. About 20 minutes later someone picked the bird up again, this time tucked inside the hedge rather than perched on it. Although partly obscured at times by leaves blowing in the breeze, it remained visible long enough (15-20 minutes) to enjoy some excellent scope views.
Photography, however, proved much more difficult. The combination of distance, foliage and constantly shifting branches made getting a clear shot a real challenge, although I persevered and managed a few record images.
Looking through social media during the afternoon, I realised just how fortunate the earliest arrivals had been. Anyone on site before 6.00am had enjoyed incredible, close and unobstructed views. A birder friend, Alan Boddington @alanbodd, had driven through the night and was among those lucky enough to witness the bird showing continuously for at least 1½ hours. He also captured some outstanding video footage of this amazing rarity.
Through the night drive to Scotland for Britain’s 2nd ever Long-Tailed Shrike. Showed continuously between 06.00-07.30 at Crail, Fife. pic.twitter.com/PC2iLnJHWf
— Alan Boddington (@alanbodd) July 8, 2026
Once the bird flew to our left it vanished and a long wait began, hoping that the bird would reappear and give some further views. Swallows and house martins swooped and cut across the crop fields between us and the polytunnels growing the fruit and in the field behind. Behind was also a clear view of the Isle of May - quite stunning scenery here. We watched the hedge where views had been obtained during the morning and the hedges beyond but for the next four hours there were "only" tree sparrows, corn buntings, yellowhammers, goldfinches, etc.
Eventually I booked some accommodation online and started to make my way back towards the car but stopped to chat with a birder and photographer who was watching the hedge from a shallower angle. I found him to be Tom Whiley from Norfolk (tomwhileybirdart.blogspot.com). Tom had been at the site for a couple of days and told me he'd taken around 2,500 photographs, having been fortunate enough to enjoy some superb views of the bird. We chatted for a while about the shrike and our respective years birding before saying our goodbyes. Unlike the prolonged performance enjoyed by the early arrivals, the bird had proved extremely elusive for most of the day following its initial morning showing.
Having seen the bird, I now had a decision to make. Should I return to the site at first light in the hope of enjoying closer views and perhaps coming away with a better photograph, or should I head round to Musselburgh and try for the surf and white-winged scoters? I'd missed both species during a family break in Fife back in April, despite spending time searching as the birds moved between Lower Largo, Leven, Methil and Wemyss, so this might be another opportunity to finally catch up with them - I decided on the latter.
After an early breakfast, and a brief stop for fuel, I arrived at the Musselburgh Lagoons car park just after 7.15am. From there I headed down to the coastal path and began scanning the sea.
There were plenty of birds on the water, but initially they all proved to be eiders. I made my way towards the area where the surf and white-winged scoters had last been reported, gradually picking up a couple of red-throated divers, a few velvet scoters and a handful of common scoters. Even so, the proportion of scoters was much lower than I'd expected, and the stretch of sea directly ahead appeared devoid of them altogether.
Realising I'd probably need to work my way back towards the mouth of the River Esk, I retraced my steps, continuing to pass raft after raft of eiders but surprisingly few scoters. After almost 15 minutes of walking, I met a young woman birder coming in the opposite direction. She had been watching the sea with another birder further along the path and pointed out a distant line of scoters offshore. She confirmed there were surf scoters among them and suggested I'd get much better views from where her boyfriend was still standing.
I continued and joined him, setting up my scope while he watched through his binoculars. A careful scan of the flock soon revealed three surf scoters, with two feeding together while a third bird kept some distance from the pair. I commented that they'd done well to pick them out at such a distance offshore. He replied that they had been watching the flock for around an hour and that the birds had been noticeably closer when they first arrived, only drifting much farther out to sea during that time. That surprised me, as high tide was still only about an hour and a half away - I'd expected the scoters to be moving closer inshore rather than heading farther out.
The surf scoters first appeared during late winter/early spring 2025 and remained through the summer, autumn and winter. Their position changes constantly with feeding flocks, so one day they may be comfortably within scope range while on another they can be several kilometres offshore. They breed across northern North America and winters mainly on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the continent. It is an exceptionally scarce visitor to Britain, with most records involving single birds, usually associating with flocks of other sea ducks so finding three together is highly unusual and is one reason these birds have attracted so much attention.
Chatting to the birder, I discovered that he and his girlfriend were from the Czech Republic. They had travelled to the UK for Birdfair but had arrived a week early to spend some time birding around Scotland before heading south for the weekend.
As we scanned the sea together, small flocks of around a dozen red-breasted mergansers flew past, while eight red-throated divers passed in singles and pairs. Although spread out, the divers remained loosely associated, forming a long, straggling procession as they moved steadily along the coast. A single gannet worked back and forth across the bay, plunge diving from time to time but also at distance.
At this distance it was almost impossible to determine whether any of the velvet scoters concealed the sought-after white-winged scoter, so I waited until high tide in the hope that the flock might drift closer to shore. Unfortunately, they remained frustratingly distant throughout.
Eventually I said my goodbyes to the Czech couple and began making my way back. Along the path I stopped several times to chat with birders heading in the opposite direction. None had managed to locate the white-winged scoter either, although a couple of them had enjoyed distant views of the surf scoters shortly before reaching me.
My mum called to see where I was. After briefly turning the camera on my phone around to show her the blue sea and cloudless sky, I told her I'd drive across and visit for a couple of hours before beginning the journey back to Oxfordshire.
It had been a short trip, but a rewarding one. Two year ticks had been added, one of them a lifer, while the long-tailed shrike was the sort of bird I may never have the opportunity to see in Britain again.
Year list: 268.
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