The second bird

I saw a Loggerhead Shrike once. Which is very rare in eastern Colorado.  I grew up on the western edge of Black Forest, where the eastern prairie and the western woods meet.  It's a place that I miss very much and very strongly feel as home.  My old bedroom faced north, directly out into the tall savannah, our trees were to the south and west and the woods were down the street south or east across the highway.  I was truly blessed to live in such a magnificent edge and I never appreciated it until right before I moved.  A lot of birds that people are actively searching for life listing were common in my backyard.  Prairie and peregrine falcon, red tail, swainson, ferruginous hawks, turkey vultures, three different jays, finches and warblers by the dozens.  The first time I just sat and watched a bird was on the trampoline, a pair of very large ravens gamboling in the fierce chinook winds that roared through in the spring.  Those two birds were happiness incarnate.  Spring on the eastern plains is not pleasant.  It's my least favorite season.  The Front Range winds are at their maximum; blowing at 25 mph all season with gusts averaging 40 but capable of hitting 75.  It doesn't snow, it's too cold and dry, it just blows the old crusty snow around in little dust devils.  It's cold. It's colder in the spring than the winter.  And if the cold temperature leaves any life in your bones the wind is sure to steal it away.  These conditions are perfect for shrikes.  I had never seen a shrike but like everyone I had heard the name, I had read through my DK guide and had a little knowledge of their habits and their looks.  They are big passerines, not as big as big corvids but they push it.  Dark grey, white and black, there colours are a mix of camouflage and a serious, military styling.  Both of our shrikes; the Northern and the Loggerhead, have large bills with hooks on the ends of the maxilla, the Loggerhead is smaller and has a more complete black mask.  I was surprised that they have normal looking, tiny black legs without talons or overly muscled toes.  This bird was perched on a cattle guard that separated our pasture from someone another.  Puffed up trying to stay warm, watching.  I was rifling through the pages of my guide and trying to find the point and shoot camera that I had recently purchased for my adventures.  The bird flashed out from its perch, strong direct flight with few wing beats.  It arrowed directly into the ground, a patch of dead grass covered in a layer of snow.  The bird hopped up, and snatched a small, grey mouse, still kicking before lifting gracefully and landing on our barbed wire fence.  The shrike shook the mouse up and down once before piercing it onto one of the barbs and returning to its original post.  I went out and checked the mouse two days later and there was nothing but some fur frozen onto the barb it had been impaled on.  I learned as much as I conceivably could about them.  They are easily top five coolest birds for me and a sighting in Colorado was uncommon at best.  Sadly, shrike populations are declining globally and it's not understood why.  I have made plans to take trips to more southerly places to try find a few of them to photograph, but planning and doing seem to be in opposition to one another.