At Steigerwald NWR today I think I heard a western wood pewee. I felt pretty confident at the time, I played its calls as I listened and it seemed extremely similar to "calls #1_CA" in the Sibley App. A couple hours before I noted starlings imitating western wood pewee, but still in a starling voice. The putative pewee didn?t sound like a starling, and it was coming from the big blackberry thicket north of the footbridge on the west end of redtail lake. Never saw the bird, though I saw a bird briefly that could have been it.

When I got home and looked on e-bird I saw that this would be one of the earliest ever reported in the region. One was sighted at Tualatin NWR on April 3 2016, otherwise a few start showing up in the last week of April. So of course I?m wondering now if I was hallucinating.

If anyone is visiting Steigerwald this week please keep an ear and eye out for this bird, it would be interesting to confirm it.

John Bishop