I'm trying to identify a bird I saw today on the beach on the west side of
Whidbey Island.

This bird would fly from the driftwood down to the rocky beach.

It was was a uniform darkish brown all over, with perhaps a little white
under the tail feathers. It had a pencil line wing bar, like how Kaufman
portrays a Townsend's Solitaire. And it had a very distinctive eye ring.

And it seemed to have both a longish tail, and longish wings, kind of like a
Mountain bluebird.

I assumed I had seen an American Pipit. But even the unstreaked Pipit, as
shown in the Sibley guide, does not have the all over uniform darkish brown
of the bird I saw. Nor does the Pipit seem to have the VERY distinctive eye
ring of the bird I saw.

The bird I saw could be considered somewhat similar to the Townsend's
Solitaire, the drab winged adult, as portrayed by Sibley. But that bird is
clearly gray, and the one I saw today was clearly a uniform darkish brown.

Would appreciate your thoughts. R/Steve Rothboeck, Coupeville, WA
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