Rare bird causes a flap in isles

The bird pictured by RSPB officer Martin Scott

A rare feathered visitor to the Western Isles has been spearing bumblebees on barbed wire before eating them.

An Isabelline shrike has been spotted near the village of Brue on the Isle of Lewis preying on bees and dragonflies.

The small bird would normally impale insects on thorns to create a larder. However, with no hawthorns on offer the shrike has improvised with wire.

The Western Isles is a stronghold for rare bumblebees, but conservationists said the bird was not a threat to them.

Royal Society of the Protection of Birds (RSPB) officer and village resident, Martin Scott, said the bird was a long way from home.

It should have been heading for its wintering grounds in east Africa, but is clearly confused RSPB officer Martin Scott

He said: "This bird has just flown from central Asia to the west side of Lewis. It is amazing.

"It is a youngster so probably only hatched this summer in somewhere like Kazakhstan.

"It should have been heading for its wintering grounds in east Africa, but is clearly confused."

The isles are among the last places in Scotland where rare species of bumblebees cling to survival.

However, the British Conservation Trust said the shrike did not pose a risk to the insects' population.

Sniffer dog

The trust's Ben Darvill said many other birds prey on bumblebees and healthy bird numbers was an indicator that the bees were doing well.

The conservation trust's other projects include Quinn, a specially trained sniffer dog, who has been roaming Tiree in the Inner Hebrides with his owner Joe Waters.

Their task was to establish the number of rare bumblebees on the island.

Mr Darvill said among their finds were five great yellow bumblebee nests. The trust will spend the winter assessing data collected by Mr Waters and Quinn.