Of course the only real way to know would be to stake the place out and
see, but let's break this down.

200 shrikes is probably hyperbole, but is 20 possible? I have seen as many
as 5 Loggerhead Shrikes together apparently migrating northward. Maybe 20 if
the grasshoppers are really big and fat.

If not shrikes, then what?
Horned Larks? They're yellow.
Gray Jays? Nutcracker? (we are in NE Oregon it's possible)
Mockingbird? 200? Yeah, right.
Townsend's Solitaire? This is my choice...

>
>Dear Tweeters,
>My rancher uncle, who does own a bird book that he has been learning to
>use over the past few years, has told me of bird observation he made
>(two winters in a row) while feeding his cattle in the winter in NE
>Oregon. He says shrikes come by the dozens to eat the dead grasshoppers
>found in the round hay bales. He says he saw up to 200 shrikes at one
>time. I told him the birds must be horned larks, but he says no -
>they're shrikes. Northern shrikes, he insists. Could this be?
>Kristi Streiffert
>Coulee Dam, WA
>
>
>
>

--
*********************************** I got the blues so bad one time
* Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR * it put my face in a permanent frown
* mpatters at orednet.org * but I am feelin' so much better
*http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters* I could cake-walk into town