Northern Shrike - new breeding species for the island

[Alvan Buckley]

In recent years there have been increasing numbers of reports of Northern Shrikes during the summers months on the island leading to speculation that they may breed here. Barry Day reported behaviour suggestive of breeding along the woods roads near Gander in 2021 as did John & Ivy Gibbons on the Northern Pen in 2021, then in 2022 Brendan Kelly reported seeing two fledglings along Squid Cove Forest Resource Rd (on the Northern Pen).

Finally, we have the first photo documented evidence of shrikes breeding on the island. The sighting is from a visiting birder (Cameron Courtney) who is working with the NF Breeding Bird Atlas. She photographed a pair feeding two freshly fledged young near Corner Brook earlier this Summer:
https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S146481926


Barry's sighting from 2021:
https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S91347158

John & Ivy Gibbon's sighting from 2021:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S91610548

[Darroch Whitaker]

Wow - thanks for this summary Alvan, I never would have expected this! :-)