Subject: [Tweeters] Skamania County Gray Flycatcher
Date: May 5 00:06:43 2008
From: gorgebirds at juno.com - gorgebirds at juno.com


Among the sparse movement of birds at our place in the west end
of the Columbia Gorge, we had a couple of WESTERN WOOD-PEWEES and
HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHERS. While looking these birds over my wife Susan
called my attention to a small flycatcher in a hazelnut bush. This
flycatcher was an all gray bird with a whitish throat, short wing
projection and two wingbars. The head was not peaked or capped in
appearance and the cap of the bird was about the same hue as the bird's
back. Thre was a small and even shaped ring around the eye and the bill
looked long and thin. During the approximately thirty minutes that we
observed the bird we saw it pump its tail upward several times and heard
it give a sharp two part call. We both agreed that the bird was a GRAY
FLYCATCHER. A check of my records show that I have had three prior
western Washington sightings all at the nearby Steigerwald Lake NWR in
Clark County, (six miles east of us). The dates of these sightings were
May 6, 2000, May 6, 2007 and May 14, 2007. With Arden and Sherry Hagen
reporting Gray Catbird and Brewer's Sparrow from the refuge today, there
may have been a few birds that drifted down the Gorge aided by the east
winds.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA