Tweets...

In late afternoon, while canoeing, botanizing, and observing birds on
the Black River (Thurston Co.), I likely (but not absolutely certainly)
saw a Gray Catbird.

While studying an array of bird species in the easterly shoreline
Oregon Ash upper canopy (Am. Robin, Downy Woodpecker, Red-shafted
Flicker) my attention was suddenly drawn to a bird which swooped to a
perch in a top-killed ash. It was facing me; it was not obscured by
foliage; the sun was low in the sky, nicely illuminating the bird; I
was struck by its red undertail and/or coverts. I put down the 20X
'scope I had been hand-holding to make some notes; when I looked again
it was gone. Otherwise, the bird in its presentation had no other
distinguishing features.

If good, this would be an unusual sighting (and not just for the
locale); my experience of this species in Montana, Michigan, and
Massachusetts is that they prefer shrubbery and the adjacent lower
canopy; only once did I see one in the mid- to upper canopy.

Doug

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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Wash.
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