I heard a repeated unfamiliar multiparted calls / vocalizations at Camp Long yesterday afternoon. After a while trying to get a look at it I concluded it was a Western Tanager, probably juvenile rather than a fall plumage adult. The 2 parted call "note" was different from the usual W Tanager call I know best (I would write that "Chih-tuk!"). There sometimes was an added scratchier sound or sounds after the 2 parted call also. I expect this call / vocalization was a juvenile call form that would not be the usual for an adult, but it might be a variation that I don't know as well as the "Chih-tuk!" that I know better. Either the same one or more likely 2 or 3 were calling the rest of the afternoon, audible and sometimes visible from around the lodge building there.

Though I didn't spend that much of the nesting season looking and listening there, I didn't note any Tanagers nesting at Camp Long this year nor have I in previous seasons. Would others agree that it was most likely there from post nesting dispersal rather than being a migrant? I expect it is still early to find Tanagers that have started migrating south.

-Stewart

Stewart Wechsler
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