I was having a good morning backyard birding yesterda. A small flock of American goldfinches have been hanging around since before the most recent storm and the resident mountain chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches were doing their thing. The blue jays and Canada jays were squabbling as usual. A flock of pine siskins showed up for the first time in a month while the first Clark’s nutcracker of the winter came in as well. Meanwhile, the pine grosbeaks were feasting calmly. All of this was disrupted when a Northern shrike swept in. Failing to catch anything, it landed on the aspen tree right next to me, allowing me to capture a couple of images before two pine grosbeaks escorted him away. Not only was this the first Northern shrike I’ve had in my backyard, but it’s the first one I’ve seen period. They spend most of the year in the far north near the Artic and only come down into the northern US during the winter. I posted a photo of the similar but smaller Loggerhead shrike below for comparison.