Orange County Northern Shrike, 01/12/25

This morning, Karen VanDyk located a Northern Shrike at Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge’s Winding Waters Trail. I went over to try for the bird, and Kyle Knapp was already present and on the bird. It was a little distant at first and I took some initial documentary shots. Then things got interesting; first the shrike got into a brief tangled with a Northern Mockingbird. The bird then relocated to the backside of a nearby bush; we could just barely through the branches. A Merlin then shot through; it made a pass at the shrike and then perched in tree along the river. Meanwhile, the shrike had somehow procured some sort of prey and we watched as it ate, through mostly obscured views in the depths of the bush. Once finished, the bird started calling, calling, calling. Finally the bird got quiet, and we lost the bird sometime soon after that. What a cool experience to spend some time with such an excellent bird. Huge thanks to Karen for the alert.