The Funk Bottoms (Wilderness Road), Wayne County LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE continued through the evening (we left at 5 pm) and was seen by Richard Pendlebury around 7 pm. I initially discovered this bird just before noon as my father Dave Brumfield and I were driving down Wilderness Road headed for the recent excellent shorebirding opportunities! I glanced out of the window and looked to the north to see a distant flash of black and white wings way out in a field, and in the millisecond following I went from "oh, there's a mockingb...SHRIKE SHRIKE SHRIKE" and fortunately many were able to come out to successfully see this classy rarity, likely one from the threatened Canadian population. This adult bird is extremely wary, however, and when cars were parked in full view (even though bird was well-away from the road without any pressure) it would retreat and hunt extra-close to the ground, even though it foraged a WAYS from the road. Take Elyria Road to Wilderness Road and turn west. Go west on Wilderness for about a quarter mile, and on the right (north side) of the road, before the small bridge and mudflats, are some scattered shrubs, two small dead trees, and two taller Black Cherry trees (tallest trees in field) smack-dab in the middle of a field, just beyond a very large patch of goldenrod. Park just before the small bridge and walk back several dozen feet to the east to view. Bird spent a good deal of time in very small dead tree immediately left of the two cherry trees, but also was perched point-blank in the open on the two small dead trees. Also spent time extremely low and hidden in a large round russian olive. Sometimes went "missing" for five minutes as it hunted grasshoppers, katydids low in the brush, on the ground, in the field and shrubs. 
Other species included 11 species of shorebirds (Su Snyder had 60 American Golden-Plovers before a Peregrine strafed the mudflats), Osprey, Bald Eagle, American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Sandhill Crane, and over 60 Bobolinks foraging in the field behind the shrike's favored haunts. 

Photo to be posted on http://northnw.wordpress.com

Jen [log in to unmask]
Cleveland, Ohio
330-701-6452



                                          
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