Western Vagrants!

Early this morning I went to a local hotspot near Arlington.  Almost right away, I heard what I was sure was a Western Wood Pewee.  I played the call, just to make sure, and it came in and started singing loudly.  Definitely a Western Wood Pewee!  The differences between Eastern and Western Wood Pewees are very slight.  The only way to make a reliable identification is to hear them calling or singing.  Luckily this one was.

First Reno county record of Western Wood Pewee!

 I called Joseph to let him know right away, but he unfortunately couldn't make it till later. The rest of the area was mostly devoid of birds at the time, so I decided to head home for a while.

     We decided to meet there again shortly after noon.  Bryant and I got there first, but couldn't locate the pewee immediately.  I started hearing a song that I didn't recognize.  There were several goldfinches hanging around, then one flew in that had wing-bars.  Lesser Goldfinch!  We could hardly believe our eyes.  Just then Joseph, Anthony, and Michael pulled in, and I relayed the information to them.  They covered the distance in remarkably little time and we all managed to see it.

This was the crummy photo I got

  We moved on to try to find the pewee then, and after a little we found it!  It obligingly sang several times and perched out in the open giving us great looks.  It was impossible to get good pics with the harsh light unfortunately though.  We circled around to try to relocate the goldfinch.  Anthony and I got a little closer, but still the pics weren't great. Two review list species in one day!  We haven't had that since last August.

Lesser Goldfinch

Update: I went back on Sunday afternoon and got much better pictures of the Lesser Goldfinch!  The Pewee was still there as well.

Lesser Goldfinch

Maybe some more crazy stuff from the southwest will show up!

Andrew