[birding] Maybe another Dusky Flycatcher near E.E. Wilson?

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

Here's today's case Empidonax Angst:

Yesterday afternoon as I was trying to sort out our vegetable garden, I
heard a clear, plaintive "dew-hic" from the Scouler's willow thicket on
the back side of our neighbors' yard to the north. 

I started listening in earnest and didn't hear it again, but I did hear
a series of scratchy grrping & spitting sounds, such as pass for a
"song" if you're a Dusky or Hammond's Flycatcher. I can never remember
them from one year to the next, and have to start out all over again
each spring. However, I do remember that "dew-hic" call (I see Sibley
writes it as "dew-hidi" but I usually don't hear the fainter last
syllable unless I'm really close, sort of like with poorwill calls). 

If I were east of the Cascades I wouldn't hesitate to call it a Dusky
Flycatcher. Is there anything else that makes a call like that? I had to
run inside to get my binoculars, and after I got back it had
stopped"singing," so I can't rule out that it was some other totally
different species in that thicket.

I hate to be reporting Dusky Flycatchers every other day, knowing that
they are supposed to be fairly rare as migrants in our area. However,
the situations where I keep running into these birds in late
April/earliest May seem a lot more like Dusky situations than Hammond's
situations -- generally at 15 ft height or lower in clumps of willows,
in mostly brushy landscapes.

As consolation for not seeing the bird after I brought out the bins, I
heard a couple of EVENING GROSBEAKS calling, then was able to see them
as they flew over, continuing NE high over E.E. Wilson air space.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis