Well I guess I'm on a roll with finding dead things after discovering a deceased White-winged Crossbill yesterday. Today I noticed this dead Deer Mouse(?) wedged in a small Buckthorn tree –a tell tale activity of the Northern Shrike. Shrikes are songbirds that feed upon small mammals and other birds and are notorious for catching more food than necessary and then storing it or "cacheing" it for later consumption. Since they don't want to lose their food source, they'll often go so far as to impale their prey upon barbed wire or sharp twigs. I've personally never seen prey impaled but rather simply "hung" over a twig and/or wedged into a tight spot. I would have much rather preferred to find the Shrike itself versus its cache, but it's kinda fun to know how it got there! Ramsey County, MN 12/03/20

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Make:	NIKON CORPORATION
Model:	NIKON D7200
Exposure:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture:	f/10.0
ISO Speed:	250
Focal Length:	340 mm
Lens:	150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3