[Tweeters] 2 unrelated bird questions: warbler ID and a possible owl feather

[Emily Birchman]

Hello all,

I have to preface my questions by saying I am a *very* novice e-birder at
this point. I just started using it in April when I traveled to AZ to
celebrate my birthday belatedly with a guided tour of Madera Canyon in an
effort to see an elf owl (success! :D) Both the guides we went with used
ebird and encouraged me to finally try it.

So, that said, here are my questions that came up this week:

1. I was trail running in St Edward State Park in Kenmore and found the
most magnificent, beautiful feather on the ground, just on the edge of part
of the grassy area by the tree line. I immediately thought it looked like a
raptor feather as it was good sized and the colors were white,
rufous/tawny, and grayish-brown. I took a couple of photos, including one
with my hand for size. After looking at FWS' feather atlas online, it looks
*very* much like a barn owl feather (I first looked up great horned owl, as
I've seen them in the park before, but the feather had much too much white
on it. Then I checked red tailed hawk and that didn't look right, then I
checked barn owl after I saw an example online and it seemed like a match).
This seemed reasonable to me as I have wondered if they might nest in the
top of the Lodge building somewhere. However when I looked up St Ed's on
ebird and looked at every species ever seen there on ebird, I was surprised
to see that barn owl was not on it at all. I haven't taken the time yet to
email photos of the feather to the Burke museum for an ID but I wonder if
barn owl would be unusual for that location?

2. Today I was at White Pass Lake (Leech Lake) campground and I saw a bird
that I initially thought was my lifer Macgillivray's warbler. It had a
bright yellow belly, gray head and neck, and what I saw as a complete white
eyering that was noticeable. It was foraging in some bushes that were
close-ish to the ground and very active. Its back was drabber in color.
When I looked up MacGillivray's I noted that I did not see the dark streak
near the eye and that the bird I saw appeared to have a complete eye ring.
And I'm pretty sure (though this is a bit hazier in my mind) the gray did
not extend to the throat. Mostly I recall the breast being very bright
yellow and the white eye ring + gray on the head. So then I looked at
birdweb.org at all the warbler species possible for the state and realized
I believe I was looking at a Nashville warbler. Or two, perhaps, as there
were 2 but I didn't get a great look at the other one. I had some doubt,
however, as when I looked at what had been seen in that site recently on
ebird (using my phone), there was Macgillivray's warbler, but no recent
sightings of Nashville. I know both species are in WA but I guess this made
me doubt the ID since I am not an expert at warbler identification and
there are similarities between the two. And of course it was not singing!
Also the bird seemed a bit larger than I would've expected.  Both would be
new species for me. Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has thoughts on this - I
just looked up the campground on ebird using my laptop and it appears that
Nashville was seen as recently as August 2 there, though I guess it
wouldn't show up on the app as a recent sighting since it wasn't in the
last 7 days?

I welcome your feedback!

Emily Birchman
Kenmore, WA
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