![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/loggerhead-shrike-3529-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-3529-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nSometimes the steps involved in a failed attempt on prey are as much fun to watch as success.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday morning this Loggerhead Shrike was obviously hunting from this twig atop a small bush in Box Elder County. I had to do some creative maneuvering with my pickup to get close enough for quality photos and usually that would spook a shrike but ‘he’ was so intent on his hunting he didn’t fly off.<\/p>\n I knew the plain sky background would be kind of boring so typical of me I was after takeoff and flight shots, even though I knew my chances were slim because shrikes take off so fast and without warning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, canvas added, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n When he launched after prey I got him but I didn’t get him very sharp. And he was so close to the frame edge I had to add canvas for composition. Normally I wouldn’t post a photo this soft but I decided to include it to help me tell the story.<\/p>\n He disappeared in the vegetation below and in front of him so I didn’t know if he caught anything. Soon he flew back to the same bush he’d launched from but…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n this time he landed near its base. He didn’t have prey with him (he may or may not have gulped it down while he was on the ground) but he was far enough away that at the time I couldn’t tell for sure if he had prey or not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Through my lens it looked to me like he was impaling prey (likely an insect) on a projection of one of the twigs but I was mistaken. Then I thought he might be cleaning his beak but after looking at my photos I don’t think so.<\/p>\n To be honest I’m not sure what he was doing but whatever it was he spent considerable time doing it (I have many photos documenting the behavior that I don’t quite understand).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n A very large crop of the previous image allows the tomial tooth (falcon tooth) on the upper mandible to be seen a little better. Shrikes use that projection to kill their prey more efficiently. Here’s what Cornell has to say about shrikes and the tomial tooth when it’s used on vertebrate prey such as small mammals, other birds or lizards.<\/p>\n “kills its vertebrate prey by precisely attacking the nape and then severing the cerebral vertebrae in a series of grabs and bites. Tomial tooth in upper mandible probably serves as a device for penetrating quickly to the spinal cord through the space between the articulating vertebrae, thereby damaging the cord, producing partial paralysis, and rendering the quarry easier to kill.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Then he surprised me by scampering (running, actually) straight up one of the nearly vertical branches of the bush.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He obviously had a destination in mind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, F\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He ended up right where he’d started and began hunting again. But he didn’t hunt for long before he flew off.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was delighted more than usual to photograph several interesting birds yesterday, including this shrike, because it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go out shooting again for a few days. We have a storm moving in that’s ‘supposed’<\/em> to dump 4-8″ of snow in the valleys and up to 2′ in the mountains over two days. On the remote possibility that the forecasters are right I moved my snow blower to my garage from storage in my shed yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n I’ll believe it when I see it. And maybe not even then.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes the steps involved in a failed attempt on prey are as much fun to watch as success.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/loggerhead-shrike-3569-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-3569-ron-dudley\\"")
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