at a thorn or barbed wire fence. This rather gothic behaviour gave rise to their widespread title as "butcher birds".
If you go back 50 years, red backed shrikes were not uncommon in England. Their general decline is something of a mystery, but the population is very much on the edge of its European range.
Dartmoor - an ideal "bridgehead" for the species to re-colonise
But we do know, that as they became scarcer their eventual fate was exacerbated by the unwanted attention of egg collectors who, in their fevered obsessions appeared to prize the shrikes' eggs above those of other birds.
Although egg collecting has been consigned largely to a paltry footnote in the history books, there are still a small number of people willing to go to great lengths to lay their hairy palms on the eggs of rare species. And shrikes, we believe, are still near the top of their lists.
The first news that the shrikes had settled came back in May 2010.
Knowing they were immediately under threat, the RSPB, local birders from the Dartmoor Study Group and Forestry Commission mounted a huge operation to protect the birds.
It's a good job we did, for within weeks the site received its first visit from known egg collectors. Who knows what was going through their minds, but we feel the protection we afforded the site was enough to dissuade them from satisfying their cravings. Nowadays, to be caught collecting carries a £5,000 per egg fine and possible custodial sentence.
The watch, 24-hours a day, seven days a week, carried on throughout the summer. The team involved grew remarkably close to the birds, their behaviour, their favourite hunting grounds, the tree each bird preferred.
When I visited back in early August I was impressed by the studied concentration of the people involved. To remain fixed on one spot for any length of time is no mean feat.
Finally, after many anxious days in August, the youngsters appeared. Three in all, enthusiastically tended by their proud parents. While this was a relief, it meant no let-up in the protection op