Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Birds

One winter I saw a Shrike fly down into a bunch of Bluebirds that were hanging out on the edge of a birdbath and killed one of the female bluebirds.

It then tried to carry it off. The shrike made it about 20 feet before it had to drop the bluebird. Had no idea they would attack prey that large...

I had bullfrog kill one of my bluebirds at the edge of my pond last summer, he got most of the bluebird in it's mouth and drowned it.

Holy crap! That's a bad-assed bullfrog.

I should have said that is not my picture. I simply stole it to make my point. I did once toss a mouse on the ground that I had been carrying around and a shrike did exactly that. Which is why I googled for a shrike picture in the first place. They are master killers like all the raptors. But heartless (as if that matters).

Although a bluebird is no threat to a bullfrog, that still makes me think of this cartoon:



And yes, Winston Churchill really did say that... regarding the Battle of Britain, if I recall correctly.

John

The first time I saw a Painted Bunting fishing on the Frio, I thought I was seeing chit. I went up to the house to look it up in the bird book. It was easy to find as it was on the cover of the book. Beautiful birds.

The bunting was fishing? Never heard of a bunting that fished...

Been seeing a lot of Bald Eagles here in swMO and seKS the last few years. That was unheard of previously, so still a pretty cool sight for us.

I wish we saw more quail, they're few and far between these days. Turkeys around everywhere though.

Sorry about the wording, I was fishin'. The bird was getting a drink of water.

I still remember the first painted bunting that I saw too.

(not my photo, but it shows how freaky that species' plumage is!)


John

Quite a beautiful bird.

I get Wyoming Wildlife Magazine every month, and it's always got great photography and some good articles. Today (it just arrived) there's a good article on the woodpeckers/flickers that inhabit Wyoming, the photos are superb.

I'm not really a birding nut, but I could probably learn to be.

Wow, it's colored almost like a Lori or various parrots.

Aww heck, common as dirt across the Eastern two-thirds, and especially the middle third of Texas.

Interesting thing is, they gotta live to be two to get that color, one year old males sing and even get mates but look dull green like the females.

The other intersting thing is their migration: In August the whole population migrates due west to over by the Baja, have their annual moult (males keep their colors) and then migrate south to Southern Mexico/Central America.

Unfortunately for them they can survive on birdseed alone and do sing in season, so there's a huge industry down there in catching the males for sale as caged birds. Enough to impact the breeding population here.

Birdwatcher

Me, too. I married her, but I was drunk. I think.

Ed

I've seen a Painted bunting once. They seem to be secretive and stay deep in the woods.

Almost as striking is the Indigo bunting. I've had better luck seeing them.

I've never seen a painted bunting.

These are my all time favorite in the looks department (not my photo)

I confess watching grouse cracks me up like nothing else.They're such goofy buggers.

This here is a Loggerhead Shrike, which is a common bird here in San Antonio and surrounding areas, sorta surprising as its gotten scarce in many other states.



Wet years we've had as many as three pairs nesting on our urban school campus but recent years its been so dry we only have a single pair each spring.

Predatory as all get out for their size, mostly they take whats easiest, which generally translate to crickets and grasshoppers but I have seen one carrying a dead male Northern Cardinal fully as large as itself by the nape of the neck.

Seen 'em catch hummingbirds twice, and in certain areas the barbed wire fences of Lackland AFB are festooned with freetail-bat carcasses.

Around here they feed their fledglings mostly on house sparrows just out of the nest, and the young shrikes will gather around and literally rip the dead sparrow apart limb from bloody limb like a pack of velociraptors.

Here's the tattered remains of one such kill....



Birdwatcher