Northern Shrike at Amherst SP
Published: November 21, 2019
Tags: Parks and Preserves, northern shrike, red-tailed hawk
I think it was local birder, Jim Sawush, who found a Northern Shrike at Amherst SP the other day. Subsequent reports showed it was continuing to hang out there, making it tempting for me to go and see. I haven’t found this species, one of my very favorites, too often in recent years, so, after a visit with my folks who live near the park, I stopped in to try and find it.
I was surprised at how easy it was to find this winter visitor. He was perched at the top of a snag as is their customary hunting posture, surveying an open field. I grabbed a couple of photos to document the sighting and then enjoyed his hunting forays until a Red-tailed Hawk chased him from his perch. A bit of a “discussion” ensued between the hawk and the shrike and I was privy to the vocalizations of a shrike for the very first time. I even recorded them because the faint trills were very unusual sounding to me. I guess I need to practice taking video with my camera as this hawk-shrike interaction would have been the perfect occasion for it...