tmoor 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 operation.
Being the only pair, they are hugely vulnerable and the slightest disturbance could spell disaster. And we still felt it right to maintain secrecy to give the newly fledged young the very best start.
But now, with the family days away from their migration south, we decided to lift the lid on this remarkable operation, not least to share the good news and to pay thanks to all those who have willingly given up many hundreds of hours to watch over the shrikes.
And next year? Well, we hope the birds fare well in their African wintering grounds and return to breed again in 2011.
And we hope their young return to breed as well. Dartmoor is an ideal bridgehead for them to re-colonise.
Conservation organisations and landowners have worked hard over the years to make the moor a welcoming place for wildlife, as this success bears witness.
Who knows, if all goes well, give it 10 years and you might have butcher birds near you.
Tony Whitehead is the RSPB press officer for the South West.