Post by ed on Jan 8, 2012 20:39:52 GMT -8
After a really quiet winter of backyard birding a new bird visited my suburban yard today. An odd Coopers or Sharp-shinned Hawk blasts through or sits around abit. Lately it has been slow with mostly basic brown jobies around! Interspecific action is always interesting, but today they seemed rather skittish. They'd hit the shrubs every minute and then slowly come back as their inate but differing tolerances for predators alowed them. I looked away for a minute came back and saw they had all scattered to shrubs and trees. A larger grey bird with a flash of white showed, hopping through a shrub with several small birds keeping one hop ahead. Mockingbird...no. What then? Oh surprise...a juvenile Northen Shrike! Nice for me, not so nice for the Juncos and finches around. I reached for the camera but several birds flushed with the Shrike in tow. It did'nt get them and then skittered off in characteristic flight!
Ed
Ed