the Walnut Diary

This inconspicuous little gray bird zoomed down and killed a male cardinal on the back deck at noon today. I looked out the kitchen window and he stared up at me from about six feet away, then grabbed the cardinal and flew under the railing with it to a fence row just down from the house. Two hours later, he landed in the white mulberry tree and fluffed up all contented, wiping the remains of the cardinal from his beak. According to Sibley’s field guide it’s a Loggerhead, but this may be an oversimplification. Logic would insist that it’s a Northern Shrike which only looks like a Loggerhead, because the smaller Loggerheads are down south now, not raiding bird feeders in Eastern Ontario. Still, the beak is short, the mask is wide, and the breast is an even, pale gray. The bird’s a bit smaller than a Blue Jay, and didn’t look much larger than the cardinal. It was quite a stunt slinging the victim underneath and flying off like that.

I think I’ll name him Macbeth.

When I called Leed’s Stewardship Council Member Rhonda Elliot to report the sighting, she was out of the office and I left a message. Apparently they don’t get a lot of birding communications at Leed’s Transit. The receptionist was a bit wide-eyed when she reported to Rhonda: “Rod called and said a sheik killed a cardinal and took off with the body!”

Feathers at 11:00.