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