[Tweeters] Black Phoebe plunge diving

[Kevin Lucas]

Wednesday after finishing a Winter Raptor Survey
https://www.ecaudubon.org/projects/winter-raptor-survey/
I had just enough time before dark to visit the 1933 Pumphouse to try to
see the Black Phoebe found by Debie & Ron Brown on Sunday. Nice find, and
thanks to them for their phone call. When I opened my car door at 4:10 p.m.
I heard it chipping and saw it immediately.

It sallied a few times, but repeatedly plunge-dived (plunge-dove?). That
was surprising and fun to watch, the first time I've seen a Black Phoebe
plunging. I suppose there were small fish or aquatic buggers there, but the
water surface was glassy, giving me no hint of them. I attached a series of
high ISO images to my eBird checklist. eBird mucked up the order, despite
their sequential timestamps and file naming. I wonder why. They're shown in
this disorder: 4 2 3 7 6 9 5 8 1 10.

The dirt road is muddy. A couple of free roaming dogs were nice. Other
tied-up dogs were loud, but seemed nice.

Here's a link to my eBird checklist with perched and plunging photos:
https://ebird.org/pnw/checklist/S158612057

And the link to Debie & Ron Brown's checklist with photo:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S158400837

This is Yakima County, near Toppenish Creek, 10 miles west of the Toppenish
National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. My eBird checklist location is
precisely on the 1933 pumphouse. This is 1.5 miles WSW of where a Black
Phoebe wintered from 2015/2016 - 2018/2019, possibly more years.

Good Birding,
https://www.aba.org/aba-code-of-birding-ethics/
Kevin Lucas
Yakima County, WA
*Qui tacet consentire videtur*
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