>From the hip, wild guess: Lewis Woodpecker--but call note not quite right

--Jerry <tangren at wsu.edu>

>Hi Tweets,
>
>While I was on the way to the bus-stop yesterday morning, a oddly-shaped
>passerine with a totally unfamiliar call flew fairly low over my head.
>
>Size: about starling/small blackbird or slightly bigger.
>
>Shape: proportionately short-tailed, wide-bodied; wingtip-to-wingtip span
>greater than head-to-tailtip length; wings wide at base but wider in
>mid-wing, rounded tips, giving a roughly rounded shape to each wing; tail
>short, squared or shallow-notched.
>
>Color(s): black, in silhouette, not enough light for color. Hey, some of us
>get up early; not for much longer, though: the parent company (Back East in
>Ottawa, Ont.) is closing down this office in two or three weeks and laying
>us off. This email address is good for another few months anyway.
>
>Flight-style: straight-line and shallowly undulant, reminiscent of
>woodpecker flight, but more shallow amplitude; invariably uttered unusual
>callnote at the bottom of each arc.
>
>Call: a hard-edged, resonant, slightly buzzy, semi-loud 'dzeeb' or 'dzreeb';
>the first time it called, I knew instantly it was nothing I'd ever heard on
>the West Coast, perhaps ever.
>
>Any ideas? Private or public response welcome.
>
>M