Jog my memory please...

[Jogeephus]

I seem to recall a post regarding an animal (bird?) that impales its kill on the barbs on barbed wire. I've been noticing a lot of insects stuck to the barbed wire. Even saw a small bat. Did they happen to fly into it or is there an animal that likes to show off its kill like a trophy. Seems I read that on the board or was I dreaming or something?

 

[Beefy]

the Shrike does that.

(idk if they eat bats, maybe his GPS had a malfunction)

 

[1982vett]

I don't know but I have seen grasshoppers impaled on the barbs from time to time. I just figured it was one of those days and it had a bad landing.

 

[Beefy]

shrikes are notorious for impaling grasshoppers.

 

[Beefy]

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBi ... e_dtl.html

 

[ga. prime]

You still see shrikes, beefy? Never see them around here anymore. My grandpa used to call them French Mockingbirds. I used to see them stick lizards on barbed wire.

 

[Beefy]

yeah i have them all over the place. fascinating birds.

( i dont see many brown thrashers anymore tho. seems like the mockingbirds have run em all out of town. never see blue jays anymore either.)

 

[ga. prime]

Cool.

 

[dun]

Eastern Kingbirds do it too.

 

[Fred]

I've got a fenceline that the Shrikes frequent. I've seen snakes,grasshoppers,frogs,crawfish,and mice stuck on the barb wire. Also, have heard them called "Butcher birds".

 

[Jogeephus]

Thanks for the info. Most of what's on the fence are big dung beetles and I didn't think they flew fast enough to impale themselves so I figured there was something more sinister in the air. The bat is rare but seems like there was another one impaled last year as well.

 

[Lammie]

My dad tells a story about when he was young and he and his brothers were running tractors day and night, of a bird that had built a nest in the tractor somewhere and that when the tractor would stop the bird would have insects inpaled on the fence waiting to feed her babies with them.

 

[TexasBred]

Another common name for them is the "Butcher bird".