[cobirds] Possible Northern Shrike Hunting - Arapahoe

Today, while watching a mixed flock of sparrows at Marjorie Perry Nature Preserve in Greenwood Village, I noticed a larger bird (larger than sparrows that is) perched high on a distant tree. What I saw, from a distance, was consistent with a Northern Shrike, but not definitive. Before I biked closer, the bird flew off and disappeared. But arriving to near where the bird had been and in the direction to which it flew, I heard noisy rustling in tall, dry grasses. Then, a shriek, sounding like that of a rodent. Then a bit more rustling. Then nothing.

Nothing emerged from the grasses, but I didn't wait long. 

I've never seen a shrike really do something. Usually, it's just a perched bird watching -- or flying off when I walk by on a trail. So I don't know if what I heard is consistent with how a shrike would hunt small mammals. But it might be. According to Birds of the World, shrikes may pursue a mammal into brush or cover and, then, "flick or flash its wings as it moves about in cover in apparent attempt to flush prey." Who knows, though, what I indeed saw and heard, but it has me curious about the shrikes.

Also of note, though not a bird: a Coyote, loafing in tall grasses, off the High Line Canal Trail. The trail is littered with deep red scat, reflecting the fact that the number of fallen, over-ripe apples along the Canal and in yards this year is outstanding. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

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