Hi all,

In doing some "light" birding today in the area around my house, I could
have sworn I saw a bird that looks like an orange-crowned warbler. If you
have the Stokes Western edition field guide, the bird looked almost exactly
like the lower photo on page 397. It was a yello/olive drab bird, with a
white eye ring. It was about 5". Here's the thing: the bird that I saw
looked a lot like the photograph that the Stokes guide defines as autumn
plummage. I did not see an orange patch on the head, but the Stokes guide
said that the orange crown patch is seldom visible in the field.

So--here's the question. If I'm not positive about what I saw, I can't
really put it on my life list, can I?

Does anyone have any ideas about what this bird might have been, if it
wasn't an orange-crowned warbler? Or is it possible that it was a
legitimate sighting? Has anyone else had any sightings of this bird in the
western Washington area yet this year?

This bird was perched in a shrub/tree, flitting around from branch to
branch, right at the edge of the woods, in some scrub/tree/bushes right next
to the creek that runs on our property. It did not vocalize at all in the
time I was observing it.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
-Jacki Bricker
Woodinville, Washington