Wolfe Island Kingston – It was a good winter for this species on the island. Earlier in the year I had many but while there were only 4-5 remaining on this day, I was very pleased with the result. The nice thing about shorties is that they usually become active before dark, in this case 2 hours ahead, so getting acceptable photos in available light is possible.
Wolfe Island (Kingston) - This was one of 5 shrikes I encountered that day, a record total for me. I figured that 2-3 of them were recent northbound migrants.
That is the actual colour of the bird. It's in transition.
I don't normally post more than one shot of a recent subject but this one is worth an encore. I checked out the bird again and managed to get better shots than on the first sighting.
This was a late day surprise. I didn't see two birds picking up grit on the side of a dirt road until the last second because of the low light. I stopped only about a car length away from one as it worked its way back into the bush. I had no time to check camera settings and was worried about shooting too slow so I hoped for the best. I manged three shots of several in fairly good focus.
This is a very challenging subject to get close enough to for a good shot. I worked with it for two hours, then had it fly away from its normal treetop perches to land low beside the road.