I saw plenty of Shrikes during my recent trip to Cyprus and at times I had very close up views of Woodchat and Masked Shrikes. With theses Red-backed shrikes I photographed a little more patience was required. I saw that they were using certain trees and bushes to catch insects so positioned my car close by and just waited for them to come back and I managed to capture these images.
I have just returned from Cyprus having spent nearly 20 days on holiday there with my wife. As usual for this time of year the weather was fairly hot with daytime temperatures averaging 24-26 degrees. It was also very dry and this was reflected in the water levels on the east of the Island. Both the salt lake and the sewage works in Larnaca had no water as did Oroklini lake. As these feature highly on the places I go to capture wildlife images I had to work a little harder and travel further to get some images. Achna reservoir had high water levels but after my first visit there they put barriers up to stop cars and jeeps driving around the reservoir so I had to go on foot for further visits. Luckily Limassol had plenty of rain so I visited Phassouri marsh and the surrounding area to take some images of the wildlife there. On to the first images. These photos of a Red-backed Shrike eating a bee were taken at Larnaca sewage works and this confiding bird allowed me to get to about 20 feet in my hired car.
