[obol] Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nesting in Benton County

[Arch McCallum]

At 05:39 PM 7/13/2006, Joel Geier wrote:
>Hello folks,
>
>Elsie Eltzroth and Marcia Cutler today (13 Jul) confirmed nesting by a 
>Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at a private residence south of Philomath in Benton 
>County. The nest was in a fork of a nearly bare, lowest branch of a cherry 
>tree just 3-4 ft. off the ground.

Hello OBOL,
In a later post, Joel retracted the bggn identification and suggested an 
empid, possibly pacslope. Actually, it's highly unlikely to be pacslope, as 
they normally place their nests on a flat surface beside a vertical 
surface, e.g., the window ledge of a campground bathroom building. 
[Speaking of which, the new generation of prefab toilet buildings that 
seems to be used by all public agencies is putting a lot of deserving 
western flycatchers and phoebes out of a home. They seem to be designed to 
prevent nest placement by these birds.]

I even have my doubts about any empid, and any empid other than wifl and 
psfl in Philomath would be a pretty good record, wouldn't it? If by fork, 
they mean horizontal, that would normally eliminate all empids but Acadian, 
which is unique in the genus for its vireo-like nest hanging from the two 
tynes of a horizontal fork.

So, how about a vireo?

Good nest-finding,
Arch McCallum
Eugene