backyard graveyard...

We have a little bird that has taken up residence in out backyard called a Loggerhead Shrike. It is a pretty little bird, but not too friendly. It is the lion of the small bird world. A few weeks ago Nathan noticed it in the Oak tree and scared it off, but when he scared it off he noticed that it had left a headless bird (size of a sparrow) in the tree. Later in the evening it came back to finish it's dinner. On Sunday Paul was watering the trees and Nathan found about 15 lizard heads, no body, just heads under the Oak tree. Then last night there was a half eaten blue bird in the tree. I am beginning to wonder if we should not have planted all of these trees. Nathan has however been enjoying all of the findings. Last night he managed to get the blue birds body out of the tree and cut it up to "preserve" its wing, some feathers and a foot. He has also enjoyed collecting all of the lizard heads. If nothing else it is a lesson in the circle of life.

...I wrote that last night and after some observation (because I have nothing else to do) and thinking, I have come to the hypothesis that there is a baby shrike that has taken up residence in the Oak tree and the momma shrike is never too far away. That is why we have all of the dead animals in the tree, I am hopeful that the shrikes will fly to Mexico before the hummingbirds begin to show up, they were fun to watch last year.

Momma Shrike

The Baby, look how short its tail is??

The baby Lizard head, can you see it??