Same thing here yesterday. A very handsome shrike hung out in a tree near
the feeders, trying to not get blown away. All the redpolls had vacated the
scene. He stayed there for about 5 minutes before he figured out there was
nothing there but wind...

Paula Gills
Brookfield

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 7:04 PM, Jane Stein <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I had a very similar thing happen around my house last week-- also no
> binos, not even my eyeglasses at hand. But the bird was calling lustily in
> a Catbird-ish jumble, and my nearby usually jammed feeders were totally
> deserted.
>
> A shrike expert I spoke to once said he thinks they do that to attract
> unwary birds within reach. If that's the case, sure didn't work here.
> Everybody had skedaddled into the shrubbery.
>
> Jane
> Shoreham
>
>
>
> On 3/18/2011 6:43 PM, Larry Levine wrote:
>
>> While walking my pooch around the Jericho East neighborhood this late
>> afternoon, I came upon a light gray bird perched at the apex of a 50
>> ft Birch. It was too high to ID by naked eye. I was able to stand
>> about 20 ft from the tree in very good light. My 1st thought was that
>> it was a N. Shrike but I did not have any binos...just my iphone. It
>> was calling like an almost nasally Catbird. After listening and
>> watching for a minute or so and hoping it didn't fly away, I pulled
>> up a N. Shrike on iBird Pro on my phone and identified it as a
>> juvenile N. Shrike. The app had the exact juvenile call/song as the
>> bird I was hearing.
>>
>> I also heard a FOY Eastern Phoebe on my walk.
>>
>> Larry Levine Jericho
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>


--
*Birds were the earth's first musicians.*
                                    *Olivier Messiaen*