Emily,



It could very well have been a Say's Phoebe. There was one last week at
Discovery Park and they often straggle to this side of the Cascades in early
spring migration, ending up at the beach.



Gene Hunn

18476 47th Pl NE

Lake Forest Park, WA

enhunn323 at comcast.net



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Emily
Winstrom
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 5:30 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Unidentified Flycatcher in West Seattle



Hi Tweets,



This is my first posting to Tweeters. Today I was checking out the marine
birds off of Alki Point. It was rainy, windy, and chilly - to say the
least. There were Barrow's Goldeneyes, Western Grebes, Buffleheads - I
thought Pelagic Cormorants in addition to Double-Crested. I'm nowhere near
an expert. Suddenly, a little bird appeared on one of the larger rocks at
the shore. It certainly seemed like some kind of flycatcher: it had the
crested shape to the head, some yellowish cast on the breast, but also that
kind of "vest" appearance flycatchers can have. It wasn't that large of a
bird, but of course since it was close into the shore and close to me, it
looked large through my binoculars. It took off from the rock it was
perched on and returned in flycatcher fashion repeatedly, as well as doing
lots of tail flicking. It was light colored bird overall. After no more
than a minute, it flew off back down the beach, following the rocky shore,
and disappeared from sight. As I said, I am for sure no expert, and I was
so startled and mystified by seeing a flycatcher appear on the shore of Alki
Point, that I don't think I did a thorough job of trying to observe all the
various markers I should have been looking for. Perhaps other birders who
are in this area can keep a watch out for some kind of flycatcher. Or
perhaps someone has an answer to what this bird might have been.



Emily Winstrom, Bellevue, Wa