November 21, 2020
This bird, photographed out on the Leonhardt Ranch Learning Landscape, in a sense does not belong here. Range map, edited by me to show out-of-range sighting location, via The Cornell Lab All About Birds.
I had taken my “usual” walk out in the Leonhardt Ranch Learning Landscape sort of on a whim this day; I had a couple of errands to dispose of downtown (library, bank) and since it was a beautiful sunny afternoon I decided to also take a peek at Dellinger’s Pond, my other “go-to” birding spot close by. I was headed back home from the pond, with some good photos and interesting changes about the pond to report, and since the ranch walk was right there on my way and I had plenty of time I took the walk, because you never know what you might see.
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So, first, here’s what was happening at Dellinger’s Pond. A big change in water level after a couple of recent rain storms, and the Mallard Ducks, well over a hundred of them in total by my estimation, were loving it.
The Mallards were quite skittish, bursting into noisy, alarmed flight the moment they detected me, but they only went as far as the other side of the pond, about one hundred yards further off, and settled right back down.
The green heads of the drakes were in splendid display.
An opportunistic Red-tailed Hawk flew into a tree about two hundred yards away. Thus less than premium photo results, but you take what you can get.
These two Mule Deer were also enjoying the afternoon at the pond. I just missed getting a shot of them jumping over the barbed wire fence (just visible beyond the deer).
After spending about a half hour at the pond, I got back on my bicycle to head on home via the bike path. When I got to the end of the path, where I would turn right to go home, I chose instead to further enjoy the day by turning left and taking the walk out into the Leonhardt Ranch Learning Landscape. More Red-tailed Hawks; several of them in fact (both perched and in flight) as I walked along, but again they were at a distance so the photos didn’t turn out all that well. Here’s one of them, the same bird, at two different perch locations.
Another one, not the same bird I’m pretty sure, because the white chest is so prominent as compared with the one above. It was way off; at least a quarter-mile distant from me.
On the way out I also saw a Magpie but didn’t get a chance for a photo. I’ve seen Magpies around here before, but they’re not all that regularly seen. So I was glad for that, and it’s another “tick-off” on my spotting list. But the the best was yet to come, and it happened all the way out at the end of the walking path and just as I had decided to turn around and call it a day. In fact, I had almost decided to turn around earlier. Good thing I didn’t, because I would have missed the Loggerhead Shrike. When I spotted the bird as it flew into the willow tree I could see it was remarkable, and of a certainty not one I’d yet photographed. In all, I snapped fourteen frames of the bird. Here is a series of the best six, showing different profiles.
Besides its distinctive markings, there is a lot more to this bird than immediately meets the eye (and not just its being here in the first place, outside of its normal range).
The Loggerhead Shrike is a songbird with a raptor’s habits. A denizen of grasslands and other open habitats throughout much of North America, this masked black, white, and gray predator hunts from utility poles, fence posts and other conspicuous perches, preying on insects, birds, lizards, and small mammals. Lacking a raptor’s talons, Loggerhead Shrikes skewer their kills on thorns or barbed wire or wedge them into tight places for easy eating. Their numbers have dropped sharply in the last half-century.
COOL FACTS
- A Loggerhead Shrike can kill and carry an animal as massive as itself. It transports large prey in its feet and smaller victims in its beak.
- The upper cutting edge (tomium) of the Loggerhead Shrike’s hooked bill features a pair of built-in pointy projections, aptly named “tomial teeth.” Like a falcon, the shrike tackles vertebrate prey with a precise attack to the nape, probably using these tomial “teeth” to paralyze the animal with a jab to the spinal cord.
- Loggerhead Shrikes impale noxious prey such as monarch butterflies and eastern narrow-mouthed toads—then wait for up to three days to eat them, which allows time for the poisons to break down. These shrikes also eat the heads and abdomens of toxic lubber grasshoppers, while discarding the insect’s poisonous thorax.
- Newly fledged Loggerhead Shrikes perform exaggerated, misdirected versions of adult hunting behavior. They peck at inanimate objects, fly about with leaves or sticks in their beaks, practice aerial chases without a target, or chase after their parents. They also perform rudimentary impaling gestures, grasping objects in the tip of their bill and repeatedly touching them to a branch or perch as if trying to get them to stick.
- Loggerhead Shrikes sometimes go hunting on cold mornings, when insect prey are immobilized by low temperatures.
- “Loggerhead,” a synonym for “blockhead,” refers to the unusually large size of this bird’s head in relation to its body.
- The longest-lived Loggerhead Shrike on record—a male—was at least 11 years, 9 months old when it was caught and released in 2010 by researchers in California.
What a great day.
Now It's Your Turn
What’s up in your world of nature? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.
Thank you.
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