Yesterday Tim and I were standing at the end of the pier when he announced with just a touch of both incredulity and disgust in his voice, "There's a shrike on top of the overlook tree." I've looked at that distance before, it's about 600 yards as the falcon flies on GoogleMaps. The proportions seemed like it was probably a Northern, but I started running down the pier while he tried some long-distance digi-scoping.
A minute, a quarter mile, and two inhaled bugs later it became clear it was a Northern.
I've never seen one with green leaves visible. The bird took off and flew directly over me south out of sight maybe a minute or two later.
The narrow mask and long bill rule out Loggerhead unfortunately. This was the first Northern eBirded at Tiscornia in 15-20 years and by far the earliest I've had one in Berrien. Interestingly eBird showed this fall's most southerly Northerns to be this bird along with one in Illinois and one in Ontario at about identical latitudes, all appearing yesterday, so clearly they were moving a little.
Moving up a size in the bird of prey chain, merlins are around most mornings in mid-late October.
This is a montage of a single bird, though there were 2 on at least one morning.
A size or two bigger?
I think this was Hannah's life Peregrine Falcon
I'd love to see the next size bigger occupied by a falcon, but just a redtail.
Maybe next time...
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