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(?)

the flycatcher debate

I have been looking at web images, and re-visiting my bird book, and am beginning to think it more likely that the bird I called the least flycatcher in my post 'Previously Spotted' was actually an eastern phoebe, or maybe eastern pewee, the latter being similar but with clear wing bars. The least flycatcher is too small, more warbler sized. 

I've seen what I have called the flycatcher twice this season to date, once just a couple of weeks ago while gardening, and once some weeks earlier.  On the earlier occasion, the juncos were still around and that is what I thought it was at first - dark on top, light under, but looking longer, it was a bit bigger, longer, and had a black beak.  The second sighting, my attention was split between things, so I am assuming that it was the same type again, but did not have as good a look. 

Previously spotted...

It's only morning, so I haven't completed today's list, but I thought I would add a list of some of the birds I've seen already this spring, before beginning this journal.  I've omitted from this list the most common ones.

Over the winter, we get juncos, which summer further north, so they leave this area in early spring.

Since early April, and in no particular order, I've seen blue jays, goldfinches, chickadees, house finches, downy woodpecker, red tailed hawk.  These are not uncommon.

More seasonally, I've seen both golden crowned and ruby crowned kinglets, an ovenbird (mid May), a brown creeper, red breasted and white breasted nuthatches, baltimore oriole, white crowned sparrow, and what is most likely a least flycatcher (mid May) - though there are a couple of other flycatchers/phoebes that are similar. 

I also think I've seen a couple of warblers, but did not get a good enough look to be sure, or to tell what kind they might have been.  One was possibly a palm warbler, which I've seen in previous years, but the chipping sparrow has a similar chestnut cap on its head so without a better view of it, it's possible that's what I was seeing.