Tweeters,

I was alerted by Bill Tweit that he and his wife Lucy heard a call note
from a Empidonax in the Wenas (along Maloy Road at Wenas Creek) on 26 June
that sounded to him like a Cordilleran Flycatcher. It was giving the
two-part note (not song) which Bill said "I've never heard in Washington
before and sounded exactly like calling Cordilleran in Colorado."

Because of cherry harvest, I was only able to sneak away from work on the
afternoon of the 27th.

I chose to first listen to Pacific-slope Flycatchers at the Hardy Canyon
crossing of Wenas Creek before moving upstream to the Maloy Road in order
that I might clearly differentiate these two calls if I should be lucky to
hear them both. I spent 15 minutes closely listening to Pacific-slopes
actively foraging and calling here. Unfortunately, as is often the case, I
got sdetracked and ended up birding and hiking all over Hardy Canyon, then
hiked up Black Canyon a ways to get some exercise in.

In Hardy Canyon, I listened to a Least Flycatcher calling persistently from
aspen groves and thickets (south side of creek, east of dirt track which
goes up Hardy Canyon). Not 200' south from here was a singing Cassin's
Finch, below any Ponderosa Pines, which seemed a little out of place.
Walking south up Hardy Canyon, I flushed a juvenile Great Horned Owl. What
an imposing creature! This youngster appeared even more very formidible
than an adult due, perhaps, to remnant downy feathers. Looking into the sky
at this point, I observed a Band-tailed Pigeon flying east overhead, my
first ever for Yakima County.

Hiking up Black Canyon on the north side of the Wenas Road in this area, I
encountered a recently fledged Loggerhead Shrike and nearby adult from an
area of serviceberry thickets in this steep-walled canyon, an unusual
location for this species in my experience. The upper limits of
shrub-steppe vegetation was about 1/2 mile away at this point, so I suppose
youngster and parent shrike could have wandered upslope from their breeding
territory.

Finally, at Maloy Road, I could not hear "Western" type Flycatchers
observable from the bridge calling much, as it was windy. Nor could I hear
the Least Flycatcher that Bill reported from this general area, also on the
26th.

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA