<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"></div><div dir="ltr">Perfect. And you figured it out with limited resources. HNY. </div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Dec 31, 2025, at 5:53 PM, Robert O'Brien <baro@pdx.edu> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Sorry, but as usual I just couldn't resist.<div>===============================================</div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><b>Every Bird Has a Story..</b></div><div class="gmail_quote">Well, not everyone does, but this one does. For me, anyhow. Taiga Flycatcher, ( a great NA rarity now in Vancouver BC); formerly called Red-throated Flycatcher. Now split.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Long ago, I had a business meeting in Hokkaido, Japan. . My wife was invited..</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">After the meeting we went to stay at a B&B run by a Japanese Birder.</div><div class="gmail_quote">We arrived in the afternoon for dinner. Next morning I got up just at first light and walked along the nearby roads looking for birds. No camera, light was far too dim. Misty, light rain. A ;small thrush flew across the road and landed. Looked and behaved just like a Hermit Thrush, but the spots, instead, were rings, like bubbles sorta. Pretty distinctive. Easy to ID from my Japan field guide Cool. I knew nothing of its detailed status but it seemed to be somewhat rare.and this was migration time. Headed North?</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Upon returning to the B&B for breakfast I told the 'Keeper' of the B&B of my sighting, showed the picture in the Field Guide. His English wasn't great, hut be could understand the picture. He seemed skeptical. Not a great surprise. So then we asked about further, nearby birding and the host told us about a nearby small park that would have migrants. We went. We soon discovered a small flycatcher with a red throat. Easy to ID from the book. Red-throated Flycatcher, now Taiga. The light was good, the bird was tame and I got some photos. </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">We returned to the B&B and I showed him the Field Guide picture of what we saw, the flycatcher.. Skepticism reigned supreme. No surprises there either.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Returning to the US I scanned the slides and emailed him a photo. No response via email. No surprise there either.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">5-10 years later I was looking at bird books in the famous Powell's Bookstore, a very large Bird Book Selection. There was a new book by Mark Brazil. An Anglo with a lot of experience in Japanese birding. This was a review of all birds recorded for Japan. In English.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I thought . I wonder...................................?</div><div class="gmail_quote">I opened the book to Red-breasted Flycatcher. Yep, I got that right. There was my record with the correct date, attributed to ..... you know who. And, of course, no mention of me. No surprise there either.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">I bought Brazil's book at Powell's and I have the scanned photo. I'm satisfied.</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">Bob OBrien Portland</div><div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 12:18 PM Jerry Neufeld-Kaiser via Tweeters <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Tweets, I was lucky enough to be visiting friends on BC coast when I heard of the mega-rarity in Vancouver: a taiga flycatcher. These birds winter in southern Asia and summer in Siberia, and this is apparently only the 2nd North American record ever. I was passing through Vancouver, and yes I did re-route to the Aquatic Center to find it. I stood with a couple dozen hopefuls for an hour or so hoping it would show itself. About 4:10 with the light starting to dim, I got a tip from a photographer I'd chatted with. (Big thank you to whoever that was!) So another birder and I walked a couple blocks to where we'd just been told the bird had been, and after a bit, there it was. I had the pleasure of being the one to find it and then helping some others get looks at it, for about 10 minutes, as it moved steadily down a long fence, flycatching and showing its tail, before it flew off. Perfect. Victory is even better when it's snatched from the jaws of defeat.<div><br></div><div>Jerry Neufeld-Kaiser (Whitney's driver)</div></div>
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