Loggerhead Shrike in West Virginia, ABA Reportable State #39 (at least for now)

For a number of years I’ve taken trips into the panhandle of WV to work on that state list while visiting relatives in the Mid-Atlantic.  At one point I was a seemingly safe 7 birds over the ABA threshold, only to have the threshold go up a whopping 8 birds in the last few years.  So the last couple years my total has been one short of reportable in WV.

We planned a trip to the area over Christmas this year, so I started to review the WV listserve for possible target birds.  Although I have a number of possibilities, few are likely in the panhandle.  The one exception is Loggerhead Shrike, which is being seen in a couple locations this winter in eastern WV.  With the help of excellent advice from some local birders, I planned a trip to a field just outside Charles Town.  Though I tried not to get my hopes up too high since all the WV birders mentioned that the shrikes are not necessarily very reliable at this location.  I arrived at 7:30 and there were no shrikes to be seen.  But at about 8 AM I started to hear a Loggerhead calling in the distance.  It continued to call for a couple minutes which enabled me to key in on its location.  Eventually I spotted it perched near the top of a 10 ft tall brushy tree.  I’ve attached a couple phone-scoped pictures I took of the bird (you need to enlarge them to get better views of this distant bird).  At one point the bird dropped down into the brush out of sight, and then came back to the same perch with a small rodent in its bill.  A little later it dropped back down to the ground with the rodent.  It reappeared a couple minutes later without the rodent – maybe it was breakfast or it was cached for a later meal.  The bird was still in that same tree at 9 AM when I left.  Other birds in the fields were a female Kestrel and a female Harrier.  A flyover Raven was also nice to hear. 

That gives me 178 for WV, exactly at the ABA threshold.  Needless to say I won’t remain reportable for long, unless I can add some additional birds in WV. 

My statebird map for Loggerhead Shrike is inserted below.  Although I’ve seen it in a number of eastern states, all those sightings are a number of years ago.  It’s been many years since I’ve seen on in the East (outside of FL that is).