For this shoot, I took a short walk through a meadow with tall grasses and wildflowers until I arrived at a small stream. I returned to this location because a few days earlier the Merlin app on my phone, using its bird sound ID feature, had identified a potential new lifer for me: House Wren. Luckily enough, when I returned, the House Wrens were still in the area and still making noise, allowing me to find them easily. As I suspected, there were several fledglings and adults.

I had my camera with me on this time, and was able to get a few average shots of some. I also got some shots of a flycatcher, which I presume is a Western Wood-Pewee. The Merlin app identified a Pewee as well as an Olive-Sided Flycatcher as well, but this wasn't one of those. No other flycatchers were identified by song so I'm pretty sure the one I photographed was a Pewee and not one of the more uncommon identical-looking birds. The Olive-Sided Flycatcher I heard was also a new lifer.

As I stood near the stream, a crew of loud-talking men was slowing advancing through the tall grass, apparently spraying for invasive plant species. Since I'd rather not inhale herbicides and I couldn't hear the birds anyway, I had to leave earlier than I would have liked. I still came away with two new lifers!

These photos are © 2022 Phil Thompson, all rights reserved.

My "birds in review" collages can be found here.