FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Loggerhead Shrike

["William T. Thornton" <wtthornton@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This morning, I had an email from my daughter-in-law in Mississippi with a 
query about Loggerhead Shrikes.  I couldn't answer her question but I found it 
interesting that in the midst of looking up information for her, there were a 
couple of messages on TN-Birds about Loggerheads.  My daughter-in-law works at 
Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, MS and yesterday spotted a Loggerhead Shrike.  
Office mates helped her I.D. the bird which she thinks is migratory in her 
region of South Mississippi.  Later yesterday she spotted a Loggerhead again.  
It was sitting on a telephone line above a barbed wire fence on which was 
hanging a dead frog.  She thinks she saw the "butcher bird" in action and that 
the frog was a recent kill of the loggerhead.  Her husband, on the other hand, 
used his vast legal education and told her the guys at work were probably 
taking her "for a ride" over the habits of the Loggerhead.  That's when she 
emailed me -- for information and confirmation that she could have seen a 
Loggerhead/"butcher-bird" at work.  I think she did.  

Anyway, to get us back on topic, one of the research sites she used to help 
I.D. the bird was Cornell at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/LOGSHR/  That 
reference states that " Loggerhead Shrikes are capable of carrying more than 
their own weight in flight. They have been observed lifting off with such large 
prey as a Mourning Dove and a 16" long rattlesnake."  David Allen Sibley, THE 
SIBLEY GUIDE TO BIRDS, p 341. states that a Loggerhead Shrike weighs 1.7 ounces 
or 48 grams and on page 255 states that a Mourning Dove weighs 4.2 ounces or 
120 grams.  The lifting capacity of a Loggerhead is thus most impressive -- but 
I don't believe our outside cats have to fear this little bird!  

Terry Thornton
Rinnie, TN (North of Crossville on the Cumberland Plateau)

=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
        jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx      (423) 764-3958
=========================================================