Hi folks,

A friend of mine glimpsed a bird he's having trouble ID-ing.

My first impression is that of the brown-and-white streaked plumage of a female Red-winged Blackbird, but the 'song' is perplexing me....

He doesn't say if it looked like a shorebird, but if so, a Dowitcher might be a possibility.

Can anyone help?
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From: Jerry and Ginny Smith[SMTP:smithginjer at olywa.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 4:15 AM
To: Jon and Marty Anderson
Subject: Unknown bird

Yo Jon, John Conklin and I walked with the Audubon group around a portion
of the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. At the point where the road
from the headquarters Tees onto the McAllister Creek dike, in the cattails
I glimpsed and heard a bird I could not identify.

Its call was a same pitch flat call, repeated in 4 to 6 calls per
vocalization.. Very non melodious, somewhat frog like. Later as I came
back by the place, I glimpsed a robin sized bird walking on the cattail
stems at the water level. Mostly what I saw was a quickly disappearing
bird butt, that had a fair amount of white color, with some brown to rust
surrounding feathers. That's it.

Ideas????
Jerry