Barry Kinzie asked me to forward this message:
This morning I guess most of the pieces of the puzzle came together. I
watched the pine tree where the flycatcher has been seen a lot in the past
five days, where I thought I saw possibly 2 birds from a great distance on
Tuesday. Later Tuesday(June 29) the bird (that I believe was a female) was
observed by me at about 40 - 50 ft spending a lot of time on and near a
lower branch of this med-sized Pine tree. Yesterday afternoon (July 1) Tim
and Alyce Quinn produced photos of the nest from underneath and the bird
which does look like a female. Great photos!
This morning from 9-11am I watched from a couple of hundred feet away. The
female was on the nest and was frightened three times when golfers got
within 20-25 feet....she mearly started catching insects until they left and
then went back each time and sat on the nest. I went to the "Dollar Store",
bought a small mirror, taped it to a nine foot stick ,walked to the Pine
tree. The female left the nest, I stuck the mirror above the nest, counted
5 eggs, left immediately. The female returned to
the nest. The nest is about 9 feet off the ground , the 5 eggs are ovate in
shape, and are cream colored flecked with dark brown. This all matches well
with what "Bent" says concerning this species..
Now the problems:
1) Where is the male?...according to "Bent" it should be obivious
nearby.
2) Will birders(and golfers) give this female enough space and
privicy to
hatch her eggs?
3) Can the female do this without a male?
Report by Barry Kinzie on Friday July 2, 2004
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