New Bird! (pic included)

[jonny_redhorse]

(I had the good fortune to photograph a bird I've never seen before! ...on a morning drive(Sax-Zim Bog),I saw this lone bird jump from it's perch,saw a commotion, and watched it "nail" a mouse on the snow..took the mouse up in a popple tree and"stuck" it on a sharp limb...go figure ...after looking the bird up in my national audubon bird guide(yup...there it was ).turned out to be a "loggerhead shrike"....image wasn't perfect as I took it at full zoom from about 50' hand held....mr loggerhead made my saturday morning ...jonny

NOTE ...i think I blew it!.I think it's a "Northern Shrike", not a logger head (quite similar)....well...it's still a nice bird

[Steve Foss]

Jonny, that's sweet! Shrikes are wary and hard to get close to. Good job, especially on that first one. And you're right, northern it is.

[dukhnt]

Where did the first pic go, I thought that one was sweet!

[Steve Foss]

That was the one I liked best, too.

[jonny_redhorse]

I have nooooo idea what happened to my pic ....but....it's back(after reposting it) .....never had anything like that happen before ......must be spooks ..

[Steve Foss]

Well, that's just the ghost in the machine, then. Never know when it will happen to any of us.

[JayinMN]

Nice pictures. I had one hanging out at my house for nearly the whole day on Saturday. This is the second one I have seen in my life. I live in Cherry. It was catching bugs along the foundation of my house. I left in the morning at noonish and it was still there when I got back in the evening. On my way out I thought it was a gray jay till I looked closer. I snapped a couple shots in a hurry. By the way, hello everyone this is my first post. I just bought a canon rebel xt so hope to post some better shots soon. I've been reading the forum for quite sometime. I thought it was interesting that our sightings were a day apart.

[Steve Foss]

Hey Jay, welcome to FM. Glad to see you here.

And nice captures. I'll have to start putting bugs in my foundation if that's what it takes to get close to shrikes.

Be sure to show us more work with that XT, and thanks for sharing.

[JayinMN]

Hey, I just saw another one by the Hibbing Airport off of Swinnerton Rd. There is a no maintence rd right behind the airport off of Swinnerton and it was taking a bath in a puddle. Of course I did not bring my camera.

[Steve Foss]

Quote:

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Of course I did not bring my camera.

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What were you thinking?

The rule is that the best photo opps happen when you don't have the camera. My wife gets so disgusted that I tote my gear everywhere we go. Honey, I say, if I don't bring it, that will be the time a wolf pops out of the bush.

[jonny_redhorse]

Apparently we gotta bonified "Shrike" migration goin on here

[amoebus]

The Shrikes are around all year but prefer open areas which don't necessarily correspond to people. Here in the cities area, the Northern is here in the winter and the Loggerhead migrates back for the spring/summer. The neat thing about the Shrikes is they will impale some of their food on thorns. If you see lizards, insects, or small mammals on spikes around your yard, it is not haunted.