Part of the double bill of finds on Fair Isle on this day, following finding the Black-headed Bunting at Burkle.
Kevin Kelly and myself were heading towards the Skadan Crop strip to see if we could refind the Black-headed Bunting there. As we passed the Utra croft we could see a Yellow-browed Warbler on the washing line close to the wall being all 'twitchy' and not flying off as we passed by.
As we cleared the wall I saw a bird shoot out from below the wall and the Yellow-browed and flew across the garden to the far corner. As the bird literally flew out in front of us we both clapped eyes on it as the same time and realised it was a shrike with Kevin uttering the words 'shrike'.
Once it landed on the wall it was clearly not the Brown Shrike that he had found earier in the day but a rather a pale looking individual. I exclaimed Daurian, thats a Daurian and once it moved around a little bit the pale sandy appearnce of the bird was clear, not earthy tones whatsoever, it barely had a mask.
Currently it would seem the BBRC are only accepting adult male 'Isabelline' Shrikes as either Daurian or Turkestan with female and juveniles types being recorded as 'Isabelline'. It would be hard not to see this bird as any other than a Daurian Shrike.
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