Loading...
March 06, 2008 - Zooming in on the shrikeMarch 6, 2008 • The Suffolk Times inont • 00MIn e s ri ,w M n WA 3 Left: This little screech owl was hit by a car and lost its wing. The owl was saved by dedicated rehabill. tators and now earns its keep by traveling to schools and other educational venues to help spread the word about preservation, conservation and other `green' causes. Right: This loggerhead shrike, a small perching songster, hunts like a hawk, occasionally taking small birds and mammals. Its main diet is insects like beetles and grasshoppers. Its black- and -white attire is easily spotted, and when it flies you can see a white patch on its wing. the other day we stopped in at one of the big street fairs they have down here, and among the many booths one was dedicated to rehabilitating injured birds and animals. They had. brought vari- ous birds to draw attention to their organization. I couldn't leave without taking a picture of their little screech owl. A common resident here in Florida, it comes in three color phases; red, brown and gray. It produces quite an eerie call that probably is responsible for the owls being mentioned frequently in folklore and superstition and often associated with graveyards and mystery. Screech owls are fierce protectors of their nesting sites. I can vouch for this, as once I went to check on a screech owl's nest and the FLOC uS , adult dove on me, knocking m hat off. I quickly retreated to a ON safe distance. After we visited the fair we NATURE had to get back to the world of by Paul reality, and that meant we had Stoutenburgh to go shopping for some neces- sities. And where do you go for these necessities down here in Florida and elsewhere'? We went to one of those gi- ant stores that has everything — you know, the type where you can actually get lost in the canyons of dry goods, baby food, the latest in sportswear. You name it, they've got it. • We had family visiting, so we had filled two shop- ping carts and were transferring what some might think a year's supply of food and drink when Bar- bara called out "Look! There's a shrike!" Well, that canceled all the chatter about our shopping spree to a much more interesting topic; a loggerhead shxike. How could this super bird be sitting in a lone tree near all these shiny automobiles and blacktop? There it was, in its characteristic black- and -white uniform, with its short, heavy bill that is hooked on the end like those of the hawk family. What makes this bird so different is that it is the only predatory songbird that stalks and captures its prey the way a hawk does. It doesn't have the strong legs and equally strong talons so characteristic of hawks. Because of the lack of strength in its legs and talons, the shrike carries its prey to the nearest barb and impales it while it eats, often returning to eat again at a later time. This bird is gradually disappearing from the bird world. Because of this it has become a threatened species in many states. I know from my own experi- ence-we're seeing fewer and fewer shrikes up north than ever. My first encounter with a shrike was when we were out on an annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count' in Orient. It was late afternoon and most of us were pretty beat. We had been walking since seven that morning, but that didn't matter when a shrike flew by with a small bird dangling beneath it. Everyone in the group stood in awe as they watched the shrike hang its victim on a hawthorn barb. We must have watched it for five to 10 min- utes as it ate and then flew away, evidently with a full stomach. Everyone wanted to see if what we had iust witnessed was reallv true. -Sure enough, as we all moved in closer, there were the remains of a small bird hanging from a thorn on the hawthorn tree. Hence, it gets its local name "butcher bird," for like the town butcher that hangs his meat to cure in the cooler, the shrike hangs its meal on whatever is available for future use. My second close encounter with a shrike was when Barbara and I were working with the mama - tees in Florida at the Ortona Locks on the Caloo- sahatchee River. We watched a shrike build its nest and raise its young in a small tree near our camper. I was able to see the comings and goings of this loggerhead shrike from the day she laid her first egg to the fledging of her young. At this particular site grasshoppers and other insects were the main food supply for both young and adults.. I've seen more shrikes in the south than I have up north. Remember, there are two different shrikes; LIM :2 the one up north is called the northern shrike and the one we are seeing here in Florida is the log- gerhead shrike. The two are almost the same in appearance; both are about the size of a small robin and catch small birds and rodents plus grasshoppers, beetles etc. They are a relatively easy bird to identify, with their fluttering; gliding motion that shows off their white wing patch contrasting against their dark body. Reading through some of the limited literature we have down here in Florida, I came across an interesting account of a lady and her canaries. Each day when the conditions were right, she'd put her anaries in their caee outside in the sun where they could bathe and preen themselves. All went well for two or three days and then a shrike decided to check out those brightly colored little yellow birds. As the shrike got close to the cage, the canaries panicked and grabbed the side of the cage. Need I say more? Wanting to get a closer look at some of the birds we can see right from the breakfast table, our children treated me to a scope much more power- ful than the binoculars I had been using. Now I can see everything out the window as well as across the waterway. It's not hard to get a "bird's -eye view" now, with this scope that's three times more power- ful than my binoculars.