Hi Tweets,

Sorry for the late posting on this, but I have not
been home for the last few days so I have not been
able to post this yet. As Scott Downes already
mentioned, I birded parts of eastern Washington on
Saturday with him, as well as David Vander Pluym and
Matt Brady from Santa Cruz, California. In the Roslyn
area of Salmon La Sac on Saturday morning we found an
Empidonax Flycatcher of unknown species. To get to
this spot take I-90 Exit 80 and head north.
Immediately north of the freeway there is a small
pullout area and a Trendwest road on the left side.
The bird was observed 2.0 miles up this in the top of
a douglas fir tree. We erected a small pile of ice
chunks on the left side of the road directly across
from where we saw the bird.

Matt spotted the bird first and after some initial
looks in our binoculars at a distance of about 50
yards and after some initial discussion about "what
this strange bird could be" Matt said that it looked
like a flycatcher and I said "well, the posture is
right but they wouldn't be here right now, lets put
the scope on it."

As soon as the scope came into focus on the bird I
noticed that I was staring at the back of a drab
passerine (grayish greenish) with brightly edged
tertials. I turned the scope up to 40 power and
looked again. The bird had turned its and I noticed
that it had an eyering and a light colored lower
mandible and after using a few words which are better
left off this forum to express my initial shock ("It
IS a flycatcher!) I said "You two have to look at
this!" David and Matt each looked at it in the scope
for a minute and then went to get their cameras and
stuff while I decided to look for more field marks
which would help pin down the identity of the bird
such as primary projection and eyering shape. As I
looked back into the scope the bird flew from its
perch and dropped down into some trees and
dissappeared from view. We spent about 30 minutes
attempting to relocate this bird before turning around
and leaving.

>From what we have seen of this bird, it was an obvious
Empidonax sp. in very fresh plumage. The edgings of
the tertials of this bird were VERY bright. Matt and
David noted 2 bright wing bars on this bird when it
shifted its position on the perch, and we all noted
the presence of an eyering and a light colored lower
mandible. The bird was olive grayish overall and
lacked strong yellowish tones. Although size of the
bird was difficult to judge without a direct
comaprison it seemed to be a largish empid rather than
a smaller one (the thought of a pewee entered our
minds initially, but we quickly discarded it after
seeing the field marks). In addition, when the bird
flew the wings had the distinctly "transluscent"
appearence I have often noted in flying empids when
backlit. The windows on the wings of this bird were
apparent as it dissappeared from view. Although I am
aware of the pitfalls of the identification of silent
empids, particularly those which are out of season or
in strange habitats, my thoughts are that this was
perhaps a Dusky Flycatcher, although it is difficult
(e.g. impossible) to eliminate other species without
more information. Please feel free to send me an
email if you have any questions.

Michael Dossett
Bothell, WA
phainopepla at yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Sports - Coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games
http://sports.yahoo.com