Date: 7/7/25 2:38 pm From: Don Morrow <donaldcmorrow...> Subject: [NFLbirds] Encounter with a Shrike
Thunderstorm winds have strewn unripe wild grapes and overripe black
cherries on the trails I walk. Along those trail edges, the small flowers
of bittermint are attracting solitary bees. In wetlands, spicebush
swallowtails are feeding on the globular flowers of buttonbush. Juvenile
Brown-headed Cowbirds have deserted their foster parents and are flocking
with adult cowbirds.
Most of our resident nesters, like cardinals and mockingbirds, are on
their second broods. Our migrant summer nesters, like Great-crested
Flycatchers and Orchard Orioles, are usually single-brooded. They and their
young are wandering away from their former nesting territories in search of
seasonally abundant food sources, making them easier to find. Some will be
migrating by the end of the month.
The J.R. Alford Greenway is one of my favorite walks. A wide peninsula set
between Alford Arm and Lake Piney Z; it allows me to get a long walk in
while providing some good birding. It is one of the most accessible places
in Leon County to find Loggerhead Shrikes. In Florida, shrikes form
permanent territories and a pair has successfully bred in the first field
near the parking lot for several years.
Loggerhead Shrikes are cardinal-sized predators. They are white underneath
and gray-backed with a black mask, wings, and tail. Their tails have white
edges and they have a white wing patch that is visible in flight. Shrikes
have small hooked beaks and feed on insects, small mammals, birds, and
reptiles. Like many other grassland birds, they are in serious decline due
to land use changes and agricultural pesticides.
The clay entrance road through the first field at Alford is lined with
live oaks. Shrikes nest in them and can often be found perching on oak
branches. This morning while walking at Alford I saw a Loggerhead Shrike
trying to impale the remains of a snake on an oak branchlet. It had already
eaten the head and an undetermined portion of it, leaving about a nine-inch
length of the snake.
Shrikes commonly impale prey on thorn bushes or barbed wire fences.
Shrikes are songbirds and unlike raptors, they don’t have strong talons
that they can use to manipulate prey. Impaling aids them in feeding on
their prey. They also impale prey as a means of food storage and possibly
to attract mates. This habit gives them the colloquial name Butcherbird.
My old birding friend John lived in rural Alachua County. One of his
neighbors came to him and said that he thought a witch was trying to put a
spell on him. He took John to a section of his barbed wire fence that was
festooned with impaled anoles and small mice. John explained that a shrike
was responsible and was just filling the pantry.
I am pretty sure that shrikes don’t cast spells, but even though it’s hot,
humid, and full summer in the Big Bend, there are magical things out there
that you won’t find if you sit in your air-conditioned living room watching
the Nature Channel through binoculars.
