the flycatcher that got away!

Hi all, it has been two years now that I have been in intensive study and
have not had much opportunity to either go birding on a consistent basis nor
keep up with e-mail.

I thought I might relate the more significant sightings of the morning of
Sept. 21.

In the span of 2 hours, I was able to find all locally occurring warblers
except for MacGillivray's. This I thought was quite remarkable especially
considering the date.

It was quite interesting to recalibrate both my ears and eyes to retune them
to birding after a stretch of infrequent birding excursions--especially with
regard to passerines.

Not the kind of day to find a rarity but as usual we do not have control
over these events.

Along the edge of a pasture with a narrow stand of alder and thickets with
one small stand of mature maple in the background, I found a pocket of
warblers. I was impressed with the diversity.

In no particular order:

Black-throated Gray Warbler 4
Townsend's Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1 (not sporting any black on cap = juv?)
Orange-crowned Warbler 6
Yellow Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 15
Common Yellowthroat 11

(not all of these birds were together in the "pocket" some were found later
nearby)

also within the group was

Warbling Vireo 1

soon afterward, I began hearing "che-beck" off in the distance...hmmm sounds
like Least Flycatcher. Of course this species is very rare on the coast,
and I am not sure that there are any records for Vancouver Island (perhaps
Michael has some data?)
Anyway, I ventured off toward it. Finally it pops into view atop an alder
tree and (due to the foggy morning) I get a wonderfully backlit subject
that fits the profile of a small empid. It continues to sing and moves
about rather frequently.
Eventually it moves close enough that I can get a real look at it. One
problem, it is largely hidden by leaves (and shortly afterward, it flew off
into the maple trees). I was however, able to get glimpses of it but the
best feature that I could see was the underside of the lower mandible. I
did not get a look at the entire bill but the base was yellow and fairly
broad. The amount of yellow seen was significant and no dusky or dark areas
were present however I can not confirm that the yellow extended to bill tip.
(this could lead one to think that perhaps it was a young Hammond's-perhaps
even more likely at this late of a date, however would a young Hammond's be
singing?). As far as I can figure, if the bird is not a Least Flycatcher,
then I would have mistaken its song for a Hammond's, but would a Hammond's
have so much yellow under its bill? would a Hammond's have such a broad base
to its bill, seems to me their bill is always darker and more narrow. I
would have liked to have seen the bird in its entirety. More often I
complain of seeing empids that refuse to call, here I should be content with
having heard the bird but really wish I could have seen more detail. As
far as song goes, I describe it as:
very dry sounding (less sneezy or insect-like than Hammond's)certainly
disyllabic with accent on the second syllable and the first syllable is of
higher pitch.
Habitat also points toward Least vs. hammond's and I should note that I have
never had a Hammond's flycatcher in this area, even when they are abundant.

I would appreciate any comments.




cheers,

Don Cecile
dcecile at cln.etc.bc.ca