Local birding gets me two more

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     I've heard Chuck-will's-Widow a hundred times over the years, but never seen one. I felt I can try with a call playback and a torch. It took a couple of visits to Dick Nichol's Park to find their right general area. Call playback during daytime was fruitless. The first attempt at night gave me too poor a look to be satisfied. I tried again last Monday, and got a somewhat better, but still poor looks in the night. The bird would never perch on a playback. It would come to investigate over me and head back into the woods. This time I counted Chuck-will's-Widow for bird 973. I hope to eventually get better looks some day. Spring migration birding in the coast has a good chance to see them in daylight. 

     Empidonax flycatchers migrate a little later than the Warblers, Orioles and Tanagers. I needed Alder Flycatcher. The bird needs to call for me to be certain of the id. That's why I had not seen a confirmed Alder until now, which is really an easy bird during May. I got up late on Saturday and saw a report at Circle Acres. I headed there with tea in a flask and soon after a short walk, I saw a flycatcher. My initial thought was Alder or Willow (Traill's). Both flycatchers wont respond to each other's calls, which means you need to wait for it to call. They don't sing normally since they are migrating and not on their territories. I took some photos and I heard a call which was flycatcher like but new to me. I realized that I missed learning one call of Alder, and I had my phone with me to confirm. I was happy to call it Alder's and left the park. Checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45588813. I then headed to Commons Ford Park for a nice set of birds - more empids but none calling. The afternoon was hot, but being in the shade was good since humidity was low. Checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45598579.



Alder Flycatcher
     After coming home, I realized that I need to rule out Eastern Wood-Pewee when some pics showed long primaries. Clean white throat, lack of smudges in belly, and flying from one perch to another indicated an Empid. Wing-bars not bold enough, raised crest in some pics, whether long primaries are long enough for Wood-Pewee were some of the questions that troubled me. I felt the fly-catching style and size were good for Empids. The call which I heard matched Alder's, though I did not actually see the bird opening its mouth. I studied the birds for a while before calling it Alder Flycatcher for bird 974.
I'm going back on this one, the photos make me lean towards Eastern Wood-Pewee. 

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