loggerhead shrike

After landing right next to my head and posing this awesome 'butcherbird' spotted a lizard just a few feet away and went in for the kill. I missed the kill/carnage shots (focus) but got some amazing closeups beforehand. This is one of many. An amazing experience! :)

These are one tough little birds! aka the "Butcherbird"

Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides)

Right at you ;)

Next day I had a few hours before I had to be at the airport. I spent a couple of those hours at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park. No new lifers. One new tick for my trip list (Northern Bobwhite), but only a distant record shot of it. Best photo op of the day was this Loggerhead...

I think this was taken at Eagle Lakes Park in south Naples.

and not perched on a dead Palm frond ;)

Few and far between in their visiting routine and I always seem to find them hanging out on dead Palm Tree fronds.

Always cool to have one of these guys visit.

I love coming across these guys ;)

I think I may have posted a couple of photos of this bird in the past. Hopefully this forum doesn't have a "three shrikes you're out" policy.

This bird was perched high in a tall tree this morning, maybe 150 meters or more away. I spotted him accidentally as I was trying for a shot of an American Robin. I had no idea what it was till I cropped in on the photo and saw that wickedly hooked beak. I thought it might be a Loggerhead...

A Loggerhead Shrike spotted along Joe Overstreet Rd, Kenansville, Florida.

Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) Sexes similar. Boca Chica Road east of Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, USA. Roadside on a loma, Tamaulipan Scrub habitat within the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes Vegetational Area at ca. 9 m (30 ft).

Hunting on the edge of a field.

Caught on the same day as the Kestrels in the same spot.

I may not be around much this weekend depending on how bad Hurricane Matthew turns out to be.

Unless they come back ;) Haven't seen them in a couple of days now.

The shrike caught a rather large bug and is enjoying it on a ballpark fence at Eagle Lakes Park.

until I run out of images ;) A wee bot better setting for this one.

Seems to be hanging around the last day or two.

Early morning light, on a beautiful Loggerhead as it gets ready to hunt the many grasshoppers this spring, that the Mexican Baja has provided! While I usually see them with a lizard, we were over run with grasshoppers from a very wet period.

In one of my week long trips into the Mexican desert, I ran across a pair of Loggerheads, actively feeding their two youngsters! It was a very fun couple of days I spent with them. This pair belong to the subspecies :L.I. nelsoni

I seldom get a chance to capture this bird in a natural setting, it's almost always on a fence.