Subject: [Tweeters] Dusky Flycatcher near Tacoma
Date: Oct 16 08:51:41 2005
From: Ruth and/or Patrick Sullivan - godwit at worldnet.att.net


Hello Tweets,

This morning at 8:30am we had a Dusky Flycatcher perched in our front yard Paper Birch tree at 8:30am. The bird remained unvocal,but clearly showed many of the distinguishing field marks for the species including the rather long bi-colored bill(being most yellow-orange on the lower mandible),"dusky" upperparts and rather whitish on the undertail coverts and underparts. The wing bars were evident and seemed rather dingy,but contrasted well wit the wings and olive-green back. The eye-ring was complete and rather bold. The bird also flicked it's rather long tail several times as it perched along limbs,but also unlike the Nisqually NWR bird flicked its wings too,but NOT at the same time. During the observation the bird sat perched about 40 feet up in our Paper Birch tree and would occasionally "flycatch" from several limbs,but at times was somewhat hard to relocate until it moved again since there was a slight breeze. The bird eventually flew across the street into another Paper Birch tree in our neighbor's yard,where it was relocated and watched for another 5 minutes until the bid slipped out to another undisclosed location. Anyhow, it was super bird the date,as well as our personal second record for our yard! This was a totally unexpected sighting,as mentioned due to the date and the bird we photographed at the Nisqually NWR on the 26th of September was also a very nice bird!

Anyhow, we wanted to post the sighting and perhaps other birders will report more late migrants! Other migrants in our yard as of recently have been 2-3 Townsend's Warblers and up to 2 Hermit Thrushes along with small numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets noted within the last week!


Good yard birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net