Need help with a bird ID. These guys just showed up in my feeder. I’ve never seen anything like this in northeastern Minnesota. It’s been a cold, harsh winter, and it’s bringing unusual birds into the feeder. Apparently they must be nocturnal.

Photo #1: My wife Molly first noticed the birds coming up the steps

Photo #2: The birds gathered around the feeder. Not sure they knew what to do.

Photo #3: Eureka! Two birds figured out how to get seed! Starvation averted.

I had never seen a snowplow train at work until this morning. While out looking for Bohemian Waxwings I became distracted by this “boy toy”! We have had approximately 20 inches of snow in Duluth over the past five days. This amount of snowfall requires some work on the part of the local railroad, particularly clearing the “high and deep” snowbanks which have been created by “road plows” at each railroad crossing. The video … three parts in total … runs about two minutes. Steps #1 and #2 for clearing the snowbank may catch you by surprise. There are a lot of gadgets and attachments on this train!

Snowplow Train

Video

I first noticed this Northern Shrike on Wednesday before the snowstorm. I wondered if it had found my bird feeders, and was now taking advantage of the situation. This morning I discovered the answer to my question is a definite yes. It took a run at a mourning dove (unsuccessfully).

My tweety birds had better watch out, a new guy is in town! It was fun to watch it hunt. I was amazed that the shrike was willing to announce its presence by singing, which is what originally attracted me to it a few days ago. While I am familiar with the rasping call of the shrike, the more melodious sound I had never heard. When that song appeared in my yard on Wednesday I looked around to find the source. It was familiar to the second song down in the list on this Cornell page on shrikes.

I hope to get some real close-ups if the bird sticks around for the winter. There is certainly plenty of prey to hunt.