My beloved [there is no other word] 15-y.o. Swarowski 8 x 30 "Habichts" are summering in Austria, being rejuvenated at the Swarowski spa, so I had only a pair of Bushnell "Natureview" 8 x 30 temporary binos with me this morning around 8:30 when I came upon an abundance of birds.

They were flitting about in the thick crown of a very tall, old black locust (at least some of this was insect-hawking) but also flying back and forth from the locust to a nearby, good-sized native cherry tree rife with fruit.  

The light was lousy -- dim, gray, flat -- and the dratted birds were not vocalizing.  I had to try from different angles to see what was going on, through inadequate optics, but here's my list of birds eating cherries:   a multitude of Cedar Waxwings, including juvenals with striped breasts, which I had never seen before;  two or more Great Crested Flycatchers; American Robins.  Then I spotted what I thought was an Eastern Kingbird (certainly possible because of all the insects flitting about.)

The "Eastern Kingbird" perched at the very tiptop of the cherry tree.  While trying to sharpen the focus on the dratted Bushnells, I suddenly realized that all the other birds had vanished from the cherry tree.  Then I saw that this "Kingbird" was wearing a mask...

I observed this mature shrike, presumably a Loggerhead, for perhaps ten minutes.  Several times it flew up for no apparent reason, but returned to its perch.  Once it tried to capture an unwary juvenal Waxwing that came and perched near it.  Both birds disappeared for a few minutes, but then the shrike returned to its watchtower.  

Carol Wagner
N. Williston


P.S.  
Also heard Eastern Wood Pewee from locust tops; goldfinches fltting and audible; flock of robins overhead flying southward; much aerial swallow activity but unable to identify species owing to lighting-optics problems.  The bluebird flock, which had been fattening on insects in my neighbor's fields, seems to have left about three days ago.