Wings Around the Umpqua: Serendipitous Empidonax

One of the blessings and challenges of birding in Douglas County, Oregon, is the size of the county itself. At 5,134 square miles (13,300 km^2) it is the fifth largest county in Oregon. Douglas County also spans distinct ecoregions: the Pacific Ocean, the Coast Range, the Klamath Mountains, the Cascade Mountains, as well as a central hill-and-valley ecoregion. All of these ecoregions, and all of the square miles in and around them (not to mention interesting micro-habitats like Thorn Prairie) means that there is always somewhere to explore, and always somewhere else that you wish you could be at the same time!
I have birded the area in and around Thorn Prairie perhaps 7 times this year so far, mostly looking for Green-Tailed Towhee (which I still haven't tracked down) but also three times in late April and early May, hoping for an "eastside vagrant," namely, a Gray Flycatcher. In Oregon, there are several places on the west side of the Cascade Mountains that have had Eastern Oregon birds show up regularly in late April and early May, including and especially the Detroit area of Marion County. I have little experience with Gray Flycatchers, and figured it a lost cause that I even went to look for them, considering how hard empidonax flycatchers are to identify. However, I was advised to look for "downward tail wagging" behavior which is a solid ID trait for this species.
The last trip that I took looking for eastside vagrants was on May 10th. I spent the night in a dispersed campsite at Thorn Prairie, and started birding at sunrise. I was exhausted from my week of work, and frustrated with the intentions of my trip.
"How will I be able to find one of these stupid birds? Even if I see it there is no way I'll be able to identify it."
Immediately after these thoughts ran through my head I came across a small flycatcher, bobbing it's tail.
"This is ridiculous. There is no way I am this lucky." In fact, I distinctly remember being embarrassed for my wishful thinking in that I had found the bird I wanted to see, and was afraid of reporting it for it being a wrong identification of a wishful bird. I almost totally ignored it. Almost.
I had just bought my new camera, a Canon SX-50 HS and was excited to use it. So I waited, and waited, until the bird flew into good light, and I captured a video. Then, it flew even closer, also in good light, and I took another video and some pictures. Then totally forgot about it.
The luck continued. I hadn't yet setup files to download onto my computer to save by the day, and so I unknowingly downloaded that whole week's worth of images (and videos) onto my computer when I got home. I went through them, and ignored the empid. I then deleted the videos off of my camera, along with most of the pictures.
Fast forward almost two months and I was going through my computer deleting files and I came across the videos, which were unnamed. I opened one up and saw the flycatcher video.
"Wait a second..." It's amazing how much better your brain works when making identifications if you aren't exhausted.
I almost ignored it AGAIN based on my wishful thinking logic when I thought," Well, I may as well try to identify it and see if I can ID it by sight, since I have these two great videos and a couple of profile pictures. I picked up Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion and his words jumped out at me: "(When comparing Dusky vs Gray) Gray's greater bill size and tail-wagging behavior are the characteristics on which to focus" (Dunne, 401). The bird definitely had a big bill, and the coloration on the bill even looked good. The tail-wagging behavior, down first, was there.
I checked some other guides, and youtubed some videos, and almost dropped the idea of it one last time when I finally decided to text some more experienced birder friends (by now it was around 11:00 pm) about my dilemma. They called me an idiot, (not really) told me to post the videos on the listserv, and go to bed.
The next day I got a consensus from the experts and got my County Year Bird #221 two months late: Gray Flycatcher.