Many thanks to the two OTHER Michaels (Carmody and Price) for their help on
this sighting. We Michaels stick together you know. =:-)

Michael Price helped me three years ago in making an ID of a large hawk
preying on immature GW Gulls at my school. It turned out to be an immature
RT Hawk, but because it was skulking in the woods a lot, and I couldn't get
a good look at it, I thought it might be a N. Goshawk. All I saw for a
while, was a big raptor. It finally "keeeerrr-ed" very clearly, perched
openly in a cottonwood.

I saw the flycatcher again (the next morning, in the same spot) after my
initial post, even got a very brief shot of it with the school camcorder
(which, after a summer of no use, had two dead batteries, and having never
used the AC hook-up took awhile to figure it out, and after a summer away
from the camcorder, this user didn't realize he had locked the tape, figured
it out just in time to get a so-so shot of the bird briefly perched, then
disappearing, apparently for good) showing the color on the belly pretty
clearly. I currently have no hesitation about adding Say's Phoebe to my
Pierce County check list. I observed frequent tail pumping and spreading.
The coloration on the belly is definitely not yellow, as in a Willow
Flycatcher. The throat and upper breast were whitish. 7-8 inches long. Back,
wings, and tail mostly very dark. These observations in combination with the
description given in my first post lead me to my current ID.

So, what else might it be?

Who, besides Tahoma Audubon, should I contact to document this sighting locally?



>To: Tweeters
>From: borealis at borealis.seanet.com (Michael B. Brown)
>Subject: Possible Say's Phoebe-Puyallup
>
>This afternoon I spotted a flycatcher out my classroom window. It was
sitting on the railing outside a portable classroom. Very dark head, pure
black bill, rusty (tawny?) wash on the underparts, no visible eye ring,
larger than a sparrow, smaller than a robin. Spotted it at 4:30, it was
still there when I left at 6:00. I saw it pump its tail once for sure. It
made relatively long sallies forth to snatch insects. Lots of craneflies
around right now.
>
>I have only seen Say's Phoebes on a few occasions, mostly at Gingko S.P. I
thought this bird, sitting under the eaves staying dry seemed very familiar,
since they nest under eaves there, and seem very comfortable out in the open
around buildings. That's not at all like the abundant Willow Flycatchers and
Western Wood Pewees in the nearby forested wetland.
>
>I'm nervous about this, because the Pierce County checklist I use notes
five or fewer sightings of this species.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>
>
Michael B. Brown
Puyallup, Washington
H-253-841-4281
W-253-841-8733
C-253-208-9588
borealis at borealis.seanet.com

"...I am glad I shall never be young without
wild country to be young in." -Aldo Leopold

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(o!o)
((___))
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