Conservation Guardians of Northwest Illinois

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Winter Visitor

Spring 2007 Newsletter

On a recent amble (December 16) in the back forty I spotted a northern shrike in the top of a tree. Very similar to the loggerhead shrike that can be found summering at Lost Mound, the northern (a robin-sized black, gray and white predatory songbird) will occasionally visit our area in the winter months. In years when vole populations crash in the far north, northern shrikes, like snowy owls, will push into southern regions — sometimes as far as Bermuda and Florida.

Most interesting for me was the fact that I saw another northern shrike in the same place five or six years ago. I have long suspected that birds, like people, know their surroundings and come back to the same places year after year.

—Rickie Rachuy