"Butcher" Time

The “Butcher” Shrike Earl Plato We much older wild bird observers called them the
“Butcher” shrike. Today its appellation is simply Northern shrike. Have you ever seen one?
The late great nature writer Ed Teale gives us a vivid account as follows: “… the robin-sized black. white and gray stranger alights in our apple tree. At first glance it resembles a chunky mocking bird. For a time all is still.
.Below the tree juncos and tree sparrows continue their feeding. Then a bluejay shrieks. The small birds scatter.
… without warning the stranger has plummeted downward from the tree limb. As though wielding an axe it has delivered a deadly blow with its bill to the back of the skull of one of the feeding juncos. The swift and silent killer is that predatory “Butcher” bird, the Northern shrike. When there is a winter scarcity of food it can be driven southwards. Then its diet consists mainly of mice and small birds. The sketch above shows grasshoppers and would show other insects and mice impaled on its thorn tree summer larder. This scene I saw was on the bank of the o ld C.N.R. tracks in Fort Erie. The late Fort Erie naturalist, Bert Miller, verified my find. Keep observing in nature.
In the recent Bird Count this December Northern (Butcher) shrieks were seen in Niagara. The “Butcher” is back.