Northern Shrike Whitesbog

Nov. 10 was a beautiful day. On my way back from visiting with mom I decided to drive through Whitesbog to see if the Tundra Swans have returned yet. Happily, as I reached the Upper Reservoir, three swans were easily seen on the opposite shore. That was nice. Then as I was driving down by the doglegs, I noticed a fairly large, robin-sized bird perched atop a tree. The problem is that it wasn’t chunky like a robin, and when it flew, it had a somewhat undulating flight. My mind raced as I was setting up the scope, and indeed, as suspected it turned out to be a Northern Shrike…a gray and white bird with dark primaries, large bill, and an obvious black facial mask. I reached into the car for the camera and when I looked up, the tree was empty and nowhere to be seen. Darn. Drat. Damn. Northern Shrikes appear yearly in NJ, but it still falls into the ‘good bird’ category. I only see one other record from NJ in eBird for 2014..a February bird in Salem County.  I reported the sighting on JerseyBirds, and then set about to re-find it. Two hours later I spotted it nearly a mile away on the Burlington County side of Whitesbog, where it flew to the top of the bordering pines, perched for a few minutes, then disappeared behind the treeline. Was it gone forever, as a two-hour wonder, or would it stick around?

We found out the next day when I got an e-mail from my birding buddy Larry, who reported re-finding it while I was ‘busy’ playing ping-pong. About an hour later I was able to join him, and after more than an hour of searching, was walking along one of the cross-dikes when I heard a different call. I turned around, searching for the source, and indeed, it turned out to be the shrike, close to the road, in perfect light, filling my scope view. Wow. We’re talking stunning view now, folks. Perfect for a digiscoped photo. Ooops…the adaptor is back in the car. Darn. Drat. Damn. I gave hand-held digiscoping a shot, but as I was fiddling and fumbling around, it disappeared again. Yet another missed opportunity.

I returned the next day, with similar stories…the bird was seen by me and others, but no documentation photos were taken as far as I know, and the bird remained remarkably adept at disappearing at will.

After taking a day off to try my hand at seawatching (that’s another story for another day), I returned back today with brother Rich. As we approached the Upper Reservoir, there it was, close to the road. We got out of the car quietly, and a few seconds later it flushed across the bog to a more distant tree. After Rich was able to get decent scope looks, I tried to get photos. They are far from the best photos that I have ever taken, but the first photos of this bird that I am aware of. When we took our eyes off of it momentarily, once again it sneaked of to who-knows-where.

Its been fun pursuing this bird, following it from day to day. It has managed to avoid my attempts to watch it feeding, but I’ve grown to appreciate that it has remained for at least 5 days. Sure, it’s shy and aloof, and sure, there have been plenty of birders driving around the Whitesbog roads shaking their heads, but that’s part of the allure. I’m hoping that it remains longer, and part of me hopes that it remains aloof.  Stay tuned.  Here’s a map of the locations where I or others have seen this bird (marked with an ‘S’). Notice how it is ranging fairly widely, but favors the Ocean County end.