Birded at Hunter Farms today in Union, WA. I've been getting rare bird alerts for a Northern Shrike here for about a month and I thought I'd go out and try to see the Shrike.
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As soon as I arrived I saw a very large (~6ft) blackbird who seemed to be acting as a sentry for the 120 or so Red-Winged Blackbirds who were making an ungodly racket in the trees. Prior and I always joke about how one time our neighbor opened his front door and yelled at birds singing in the morning, but if the birds were singing like this (or like the Great Tailed Grackles I saw in Tempe!) then I would understand being frustrated. This went on for about the entire hour I was there.
These guys were doing really cool flying tricks in big flocks, moving like ocean waves
I kind of love their song, honestly. Very glitchy, noise music kinda stuff. I didn't spend my youth watching young people wearing weird outfits twiddling knobs in sweaty basements and making horrible screeching sounds just to decide that birdsong is a little harsh.
I watched the blackbirds for awhile and saw a Red-Tailed Hawk swooping around them. Very cool, very romantic. We love buteos. There was a bald eagle way out, just watching the proceedings like a statue:
And then without much effort, right there in the parking lot with me appeared the star of the show: our rare Northern Shrike. I immediately recognized it as something different from the other birds, if only for its behavior, which was distinctly that of a real predator. It was perching up on high places like an owl or a hawk, clearly on the lookout for something to dive on and snatch up. Shrikes are pretty gruesome predators, and are often known as "butcher birds" because they will often take their prey and impale it open on the thorn of a plant before eating it. I didn't see any of that, though. What I saw was a really cute grey and black bird. Apparently it's a juvenile, as the eye-mask isn't fully developed, which gave me a second of pause to double check my identification, but looking at the others who had seen it, it was clearly the same bird.
I watched him for a good 10-15 minutes as he dove and swooped around me from perch to perch. The best photo I got was when he landed on the glove of an enormous wooden santa cut-out (it was taller than the barn):
After he flew away I stayed out awhile longer, watching the blackbirds, some ravens, some crows. Took a photo of these Robins for some reason.
These are all over my backyard, and probably all over yours too, but for some reason I felt I needed to prove I'd seen them. Or I just wanted to take it. Maybe I took it for this blog? No reason not to take it, really I guess. Anyway, here's a photo of nine American Robins.
After that I went into Hunter Farms store and asked what their most popular jarred item was (they've got like a whole wall of their homemade pickles and sauerkrauts and whatnot). Apparently it is their candied jalapenos, so I bought some. I went back out and watched the blackbirds some more. The eagle was still in the same spot:
Yes, this is the same photo. Yes, I posted it twice. I do have two photos of it, but this is the only one that isn't blurry.
A nice Saturday birding outing. Cannot complain one bit. I love birds. I look forward to doing another soon.
Birds, Sara