I ran out to Bald Eagle State Park today to do some birding and hopefully find the shrikes that have been reported in the park. Most people have been able to find the shrike that is hanging around the park entrance and the campground area although it covers a lot of area and can be tricky to find, especially with all the mockingbirds around. Up until today, the shrike at the Upper Green’s Run area of Bald Eagle had only been reported once.
Northern Mockingbird- not a shrike but I was ordered by Justine to put in a good picture to compensate for the terrible quality of the shrike photos. Please lower your expectations for the shrike photos.
I spent a few hours walking around the areas the first shrike has been seen but it wasn’t until I was almost leaving that I decided to drive down toward the beach area and spotted the shrike just to the south of the park office.
Northern Shrike - south of park office
Northern Shrike- Bald Eagle SP park office
After I left the main part of the park, I swung past Upper Green’s Run to look for the other shrike and before I even got to the entrance, I spotted it high in a tree along the road. I swung around and got some more terrible photos. Less than 10 minutes had passed since I had seen the first shrike so it’s pretty unlikely that its the same bird. Both of the shrikes only stayed perched for a few short moments and each time I pulled out my scope to digiscope a good shot, it flew down into the bushes out of site.
Northern Shrike at Upper Green's Run
Northern Shrike at Upper Green's Run
I updated the map with the locations I saw the shrikes today. Feel free to click through to the larger map and add your shrike sightings so we can help others find it as well.
View BESP- Northern Shrike 2010-11 in a larger map