That was what my friend said about me to the others, when I arrived to see this rare steppe grey shrike (Lanius excubitor pallidirostris) on Jæren yesterday.
They had been there for a long time several times, only seeing it from a distance on the other side of a field. But as you can see, 5 minutes after she said that, it disappeared from the other side of the field, and when I looked up, it sat on a lamp post right above us. After some photos, it came down on the ground, only 2-3 meters away from our feet (!) Then it took a large beetle and ate it on the stone wall about 4 meters away. We had it hunting for beetles and wasps and resting as well, up close for a very long time. We almost couldn't believe what happened!
It is a subspecies of the great grey shrike, and a very rare visitor in Norway. It is native to Central Asia and parts of northern China, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We have the "regular" great grey shrikes here, but I had only seen the red-backed shrikes here before, so it was a new species to me anyway - my number 234 in Norway.
(Steppevarsler, underart av varsler, in Norwegian)
Check out the links below the line for many more photos of it!
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