Gallery : Mixed photos : Lesser Grey Shrike Lanius minor . Photo: Bertil Johansson.
Varvsbukten, in the colony of Baltic Lesser Black-backed Gulls 26.5 2003.
Photo: Bertil Johansson © 2003.
We found this Lesser Grey Shrike when walking past the colony of Baltic Lesser Black-backed Gulls in Varvsbukten, Gotska Sandön, on May 26th 2003. It was most often sitting in low pines near the sea shore. The bird was discovered at around 1.15 p.m. and we found it again when we returned from Hamnudden at around 5 p.m. The picture was taken at the latter occasion, when the other two birders on the island, Per and Mikael Åsberg also had a view of the bird.
The bird was markedly pink on the breast. The remiges appeared all black and the black in the forehead was broad. The bird showed an aggressive behaviour towards a male Red-backed Shrike in the vicinity. We believe this bird is of male gender. This is the fifth record of the species on Gotska Sandön.
Bertil Johansson och Arvid Pettersson, Stockholm