Doc Duck
Well-known member
Couldn't find my Western States field guide before take-off, so when unsure, I'd better ask. Here are three puzzles, mostly my own fault for poor photo quality. One is a flycatcher of some sort, perched over the Rogue River (?) in Grant's Pass, OR. I tried to compensate for the back-light, but before I got to a good setting the bird had taken off. Two shots attached - one sharpish silhouette and one ever so slightly better lit but in poorer focus. Next come two birds spotted at Meta Lake, the one live spot in the dead zone on Mt. St. Helens (it was under deep snow when the blast happened). One is a flycatcher of some sort, perhaps Pacific Slope? Or Olive-sided? Should be a good enough shot, but there's the problem of traveling without a field guide :S. The other I spotted waaaaay way off on the tip of a standing dead tree, just across Meta Lake. When I crop in, the tail seems to indicate a woodpecker of some sort, but no red patches, so perhaps a Northern flicker? yellow-shafted? I was hearing a red-tailed hawk in the vicinity, but balancing on its tail like that isn't what hawks do, is it?