At noon the birds in the backyard started making an unusual alarm call,
different from what they do for a cat. The birds remained at the top of our
Russian olive tree but were clearly upset. A Northern Shrike had killed a
House Sparrow and was dragging it higher up in the tree. It proceeded to
eat until detaching the head. It flew to a Y in some small branches with the
head. It used the Y to tug against. When a piece came free, it would catch
the head and pull it up again. Once the head was finished, the shrike
disappeared for awhile. At 2:30 the shrike came back and hung the body by
the wings and kept eating. It was not seen after 3:00.

This is the first time that we have had a shrike for Project Feeder Watch
(3rd yard sighting, 2nd with kill). We also had 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 1
Rufous-sided Towhee, 7 White-crowned Sparrow, 6 DE Junco, 32 House Finch, 11
American Goldfinch, 20 House Sparrows, 67 California Quail, 1 Yellow-rumped
Warbler, 2 Black-billed Magpie, 1 American Robin. Actually more robins were
present, but only those taking seed or water are counted. There were also
Flickers in the yard.






Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
Richland, WA
wlafra at oneworld.owt.com