WARNING: some of the mammal pictures below are a bit gruesome, sorry! Hopefully you can scroll by if you're squeamish.

On a rainy morning here in the middle of migration season I went down to the river to try to find an owl nesting in a tree cavity. I didn't have any luck with the owl, but I'm planning to return to try again. What I did see was a dark and mysterious flycatcher with a heavy bill and very obvious white tufts sticking out from each wing. I should have been able to ID it from the white tufts alone, but for some reason that detail didn't immediately click for me. I only saw the back of the bird — had I seen its belly I would have ID'd it right away (foreshadowing the next day's bird). I also took lots of photos of a Cassin's Vireo eating a rather large winged insect. It carried its meal down into a low shrub right at eye level. This was a much longer and better look at a Cassin's Vireo than I'd ever had before, so that was great.

I saw a couple of large coypu/marmot creatures in some waterways... the first one didn't appear to have any eyes when I was looking through the tiny viewfinder in the camera. After loading the images onto my computer, I was amazed and a bit horrified to see that it appears to be the survivor of some horrible attack or injury. It appears to be missing much of its face, the poor thing! I watched it swim around and even clean its face and hands normally, so perhaps it's getting by just fine after its ordeal.

The next day, I went again to the downtown park popular with migrating birds. I heard a familiar flycatcher call in the distance: "quick, three beers!" I turned on the Merlin app and it confirmed that it was hearing an Olive-sided Flycatcher. Having never photographed one before, or so I thought, I hurried off to find it. I eventually did find it, but it was a bit high in some trees. Still, I'm happy with the photos I was able to get — a new photo lifer! I watched it for a while as it repeatedly perched and sallied off after insects. I was able to time one takeoff for my favorite photo of the morning.

I quickly realized that of course these weren't actually my first photos of an Olive-sided Flycatcher! My first were of the strange dark flycatcher with white tufts shot just the day before!

These photos are © 2024 Phil Thompson, all rights reserved.

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