Monday, May 9, 2016

Loggerhead Shrikes

May 8 was memorable for seeing 7 Loggerhead Shrikes at five different sites.  I'm not sure if seeing seven in one day was the most surprising, or seeing three in one location.  Previous to this, I've never seen more than 2 together except families after the babies fledged.

Our first was along the highway as we drove.

The second was in the South West Quadrant of Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park. (An hour or so later we saw a Shrike in the same quadrant a half mile or so away so we decided it was likely the same bird and did not include it in the seven.)
Shortly after this we saw our third Loggerhead Shrike on the shore of the river close to the bridge in the North West Quadrant.
From there we went to the South East Quadrant. I was just writing the number 2 on the Sask Landing list when Ray saw our fourth Loggerhead Shrike of the day. 
Two posts down was number five and across a grass strip was number six.

Two hours later and half a mile from our house we saw our seventh Loggerhead Shrike of the day.

That ended the day where we had a year's worth of shrike viewing in less than eight hours.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Nice pictures :)

Mrs. Pauls said...

I can't say that I've ever seen a shrike. Those really are some beautiful photos.