Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, Vermont, USA, November 26, 2016

Foggy Vt

Ominous Missisquoi

Shrike country

Burlington hummural

Northern Shrike Lanius excubitor

Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus

  I tagged along on a last-minute trip to Burlington on the condition that there would be some birding involved. The highlight after a few hours at rainy Missisquoi was a Northern Shrike, vomiting then catching a small mammal and flying off with it. It was a novel wrinkle to be birding in a location where hunters blasted away the whole time from all sides.