On Tue, 25 Jul 1995, Don Baccus wrote:

Had a similiar experience in Cle Elum after spending the day counting/
ID'ing raptors...saw a very dark..black..buteo on a phone pole cross tree
and two of us couldn't ID it for sure until it got tired of us ogling it
and spread it's dull orange tail and flew off..it was a most impressive
and incredibly gorgeous bird..my buddy birder (name withheld to protect
the guilty) thought it was a Swainy at first...
> OOPS! is right...
>
Oh, well....
>
> Nearly as embarrasing as the time I ran a fifteen-passenger
> van out of gas on a paying tour, sixty miles from the nearest
> gas station in Fields, OR - out next to the Alvord desert in
> midday heat!
>
hmmmmm-mmmmm... How come you didn't tell us this stuff before?
>
> Tom