On a beautiful sunny day this autumn, we headed out to the marsh with Professor Eric Compas, director of the GIS Center in the Department of Geography and Geology at UW-Whitewater, along with three of his students to obtain drone photos.
Soon, we were distracted by several other interesting aerial events. First, we heard an unusual harsh chip overhead and saw a fast-flying robin-sized bird with a long bill—a Wilson’s Snipe! The bird soon dropped down into the dense sedges and disappeared. Next to appear were two Northern Harriers with their buoyant flight, wings held in a “V”-shape, and prominent white rumps.
A vole wedged between branches at Fair Meadows was the first sign that a shrike might be nearby on November 6, 2003 (photo by Gary Shackelford).
Then, in a small clump of willows just off the trail, we spotted another robin-sized bird, but it was light gray and had a bulkier head than a robin. A closer look revealed the black mask and hooked beak of a Northern Shrike. The amazing fact is that we had observed a Northern Shrike in almost the exact same willow twenty years ago on November 6, 2003. On that day, I first spotted a vole that was wedged into a “V” between branches. Gary stayed nearby and was able to spot a Northern Shrike perching on cattails and hovering low over the vegetation. I went on to seed a nearby area with little bluestem. When I returned, the bird had flown out of sight. We walked on down the trail to continue searching for the bird, unsuccessfully. However, on the way back, we saw that the vole was gone! The shrike must have been hiding and when we were farther away, he came back to take his prey to a safer location. The bird we saw in October can’t be the same as the 2003 bird because, according to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, “The oldest recorded Northern Shrike, a female, was at least 8 years, 7 months old when she was recaptured and released during banding operations in Wisconsin.”
Northern Shrike (photo by Gary Shackelford).
Northern Shrikes, also dubbed “the butcher bird” because of their habit of caching prey for later consumption or to impress a mate, are known to be fiercely territorial. They nest in the tundra and spend winters in Wisconsin and throughout the upper continental United States. We have seen shrikes in the same location at the edge of the marsh throughout the 20 years since our first record in 2003. The area borders a woodland and has willows and small ash trees scattered in the wetland. All the sightings at Fair Meadows have been between late October and early March, and all were on the forested border of the wetlands or near our bird feeders. One December day, Gary observed a Northern Shrike make an unsuccessful attempt to snatch a Dark-eyed Junco. On another occasion, he was able to photograph a shrike resting near the feeder. Note the blood stains on its breast.
Here's the question. Do the shrikes that winter at Fair Meadows return to that specific location in our marsh and then pass on that knowledge to their juveniles? Or, more likely, is it the perfect winter habitat for Northern Shrikes and thus is inhabited and defended by the lucky shrike that first finds it in October?
Written by Penny Shackelford, Fair Meadows Sanctuary resident manager
Cover image by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren. A gray Northern Shrike with a black mask and black hooked bill perches on a small twig.
