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More Northern Shrike pictures (Irvine Nature Center)

From:

Mark Johnson

Reply-To:

Mark Johnson

Date:

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 18:45:49 -0500

A group of a half dozen or so birders were treated to a nice show this morning at Irvine Nature Center, thanks to an active (apparently hungry) Northern Shrike. After scouring the row of trees to the left of the main field (facing downhill from the gazebo) for the better part of an hour, Keith Costley's sharp ear picked up on the bird's vocalizations behind us in the row of trees on the opposite side of the field. As we were trying to locate the bird, he flew directly overhead, back to the row of trees we were originally perusing. For the next hour, he used every bit of vertical space available to him, alternately moving from the ground to the very tip-top branches of the tallest trees lining the field. He made several attempts, never successfully, to make a meal of some of the Goldfinches in the vicinity. He barely tolerated the presence of a pesky Mockingbird, but every once in a while he'd lose his patience and chase the Mocker away. After about an hour, at roughly 11AM, he finally took off through the tree line to the right of the main field and disappeared across the next field over. A few distant photos can be seen here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/27381338@N03/5176056269/ . Thanks again to Tim Houghton for finding this guy first, and to Keith Costley for his help today. It was a fun way to spend a beautiful morning. Sorry Nico.

Mark Johnson
Aberdeen, MD