The Northern Shrike that I posted about on 11/7/09 is still regularly showing up in our backyard. This particular shrike continues to be a fascinating bird to observe!
On 11/14/09 at 7:45 a.m. the Northern Shrike was perched at the top of the favored winter tree, but took off and aggressively chased American Robins from a bushy area. It continued to follow the robins into deciduous trees. While the shrike was perched above a robin, it flew straight up as if in a flycatching mode, then 180-ed into a vertical dive straight down at high speed toward the robin, which immediately took off. Then, the shrike began to chase Blue Jays, and eventually flew out of sight. On 11/9/09, I spotted the Northern Shrike at the top of a deciduous tree near the marsh behind our home. I observed 4 Amer. Crows flying into view (but high overhead). I heard another bird, and briefly shifted my binoculars. When I looked up, there were only 3 Amer. Crows flying over and the 4th crow was down in the bushes being attacked by the shrike! I can't believe I missed how the attack began - the crows were quite high, and I have no idea how the shrike took down a crow. There was a vicious interaction before the crow got away and re-joined the other crows. I found it interesting that the other crows did not attack or mob the shrike, but continued on as if nothing was happening. In the BNA account for Northern Shrikes, it states that it is virtually impossible to distinguish aggressive shrike behavior from prey-attack behavior. The next thing that happened was even more remarkable. The shrike had changed trees after chasing away the crow (closer to my location on our back porch). I was studying the shrike in my binoculars when I realized it was flying directly AT ME! (If you've ever had this situation while peering through binoculars, it is quite bizarre!) I put down my binoculars when I realized what was happening. The shrike continued to fly at me, and then abruptly turned over my 2 wrestling dogs and around our house into the top of a deciduous tree in our front lawn. I assumed this must have been some kind of strange coincidence until I checked the BNA - it states that shrikes are territorial (not just around their nest sites, but on winter territories also) and will attack mammals - including the heads of humans! Wild! I have not heard the shrike sing since my last post. Other sightings: 11/13/09 Black Scoter on Norwood Lake (a wide section of the Raquette River) 11/8/09 Light morph Rough-legged Hawk - first of the season House Finch - female (an unusual bird for our location) Joan Collins Potsdam & Long Lake -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
