September 24 / the whatsits

No shortage of activity in the garden today.  A somewhat chilly morning turned into a sunny afternoon, with some birds that are proving a challenge.  A hawk, which may have been the usual red-tailed hawk, flew over.  A flycatcher of some sort was sitting in our viburnum, and a little warbler like bird was in the trees.  The flycatcher, I refer back to May's post, "the flycatcher debate".  Today it had its back to me.  It had a thin tail, ashy grey, light underside, slight eye ring, and I didn't see wing bars, but didn't get a great look.  The small least flycatcher has a strong white eye ring, and may be too small.  The eastern phoebe lacks wing bars, and has an all black bill.  I think this may be what I saw today.  The third possibility is the eastern pewee, which is similar, but has wing bars, and a yellowish lower bill.  The warbler was smooth taupey grey, with a light buff underside, white and black wing bars, and white and black stripes on its head.  I can't find anything that matches.  It could be a first-year, or non-breeding bird, which sometimes have different plumage.  At first, I thought it was a golden crowned kinglet, but that doesn't fit, nor does a worm-eating warbler, which lacks wing bars. 

Common birds: house sparrow, blue jay, grackle, starling, chickadee, downy woodpecker (male), cardinal (male), mourning dove, red-breasted nuthatch

Fall visitors: eastern phoebe (?), warbler (?)

Overhead: gull, hawk(?)