Hamming it Up

I have to say, it has been a quite a weekend of activity here at Intrigued starting last Friday when we made our way to the race course. Although only 45 minutes away, staying overnight at the trail site takes a lot of stress off the race prep, not to mention the fact the launch was at 5am…or as Linda puts it 5 “Hell NO”am. I still need to get the race recap up on the mothership, but I can let the cat out of bag – I successfully added my 5th buckle from this 50 mile race to my collection. That means another 50 to make 250 for America’s 250. A few things went right, a lot of things didn’t during each of the 5 ten mile loops. Ultra racing is problem solving at the core and I had plenty of chances to demonstrate that over the full day (and night) effort. Prime directive was to get through without re-injuring the ankle or elbow and no new “major” damage to anything else. Glad to report that was accomplished although there is some rib damage that is taking longer than expected to get past. Again, more details once the recap is officially posted. The next day Linda guilte…err, encouraged me to go on a local craft/antique tour (Spoon River Drive) which helped get a lot of the built up acid drained and then made a trip down to St. Louis to get some work done on our RV. Time now to sit back, rest a little and then dig into all the Haunted trail props that need to be packed away. Oh, almost forgot some great news, our Haunted Trail recap video I added to my last post was picked up by the YouTube algorithm – getting thousands of views a day and growing steadily yay! (link here). Enough about me…let’s get to today’s Featured Feathered Friend shall we…

Now if you are like me when I saw this Flycatcher in the queue you probably groaned..well, if you are birder as you know that likely means potential hours nose deep in the reference books. Normally, I would ask you to take a guess as to the species…but that would be impossible from this first shot. Hit the jump and I’ll show you how to properly ID this Empidonax.

First I need to lay some ground work. This diminutive Flycatcher was found at Madera Canyon back in March of 2025. You probably already figured out I was able to process a couple of folders from that Arizona trip while taking it easy the week leading up to the race. Technically these shots are absolutely “fresh” although they were tinned almost 20 months ago.

This specimen was likely the 5th or so lifer we found that day – one of those was featured in the last post and trust me, you will be seeing the other ones soon (in Intrigued units of time hehehe). Linda and I were down in the Madera Trail Head Picnic area hunting for TWO rarities that were reported there the previous day. For reference, here is a very nice map of the Madera Canyon area (link here). Look for section 3 on the larger map found on the last page.

This was our first stop there on the trip as we skipped over it originally to go after the “prized” bird that hangs out in the trails above the Mt. Wrightson Picnic Area at the far end of the canyon road (see the section above the area marked with a 5). Those that have been there know what bird that is…the rest of you I am going to keep in suspense until those shots are processed.

Hunting for the two rarities in this picnic area was getting a bit frustrating. One reason was pretty obvious – I wasn’t sure what I was looking for beyond some general features of each bird that I had briefly glanced over on our way there. That is absolutely my fault as I should have made a better effort to prepare myself – Mea Culpa to the Intrigued staff for not following our own birding principles. I see a “left wanting” rating in my next review (link here).

On one of my many loops through the picnic area and the surrounding hiking trails, I came upon a gentleman sitting on a nearby bench looking across a small stream. Our calling cards were in full display, me with the big glass and he with his binoculars slung around his neck – kindred spirits! We exchanged pleasantries and I was just about to ask him if he happened to see either of the target birds I was after…when he preempted me and asked if I had seen the Hammond’s Flycatcher…to quote my favorite line in Fight Club – “Please return your seat backs to their full, upright and locked position“. I blinked three times, continued process and then replied “Did you say Hammond’s Flycatcher?” “Yes, it is right there” as he pointed into the tree directly across from him.

Guess which of the two people in this conversation had never heard of a Hammond’s Flycatcher before. Whipped my head around to the direction of his finger and immediately brought The Beast on target once this little specimen was locked on as it flitted about the tree. After getting something in the tin, turned back to the nice guy on the bench and thanked him profusely – “You just gave me a new lifer!!“. We continued various pleasantries until he decided to head off and explore other areas. I, obviously, turned back to my new check and went to work getting better shots.

Before moving on to the next shot, please draw your attention to the primary wing feathers above – those are the longer outside feathers that you see sticking up just slightly up from the tail. Harder to see are the secondary flight feathers that sit between those when folded – basically the feathers that go from those outer wings to the body. Notice the slight “dip” that occurs between those primary (outer) feathers as you follow the back profile line. Hold that image for a bit.

There is a key aspect you need to know about the Hammond’s Flycatcher and that is it has a doppelganger in the birding word…in fact in the same Flycatcher family Empidonax. The Dusky Flycatcher – Empidonax Oberholseri is extremely similar to this Hammond’s (Empidonax Hammondii). Similar overall coloring, essentially the same oval shaped white eyering and both have a double wing bar. Clearly the birder that alerted me to the Hammond’s knew his stuff as I eventually confirmed with the Merlin app between shots and further analysis in the digital darkroom gave me confidence in the ID. A word of caution, Cornell does point out the song of the Dusky and the Hammond’s are similar – Merlin was pretty quick to denote its audio as the Hammond’s so there is likely a slight different in their audible profile.

So, beyond the call distinction, that wing profile dip is probably the best indicator I can give you. The Hammond’s secondary wings are noticeably shorter than the primaries..or the primaries are significantly longer than the secondaries..pick your poison. This gives the impression the secondaries are hunched up into the body coupled with the visual shortening of the tail as the primaries extend further down it.

The Dusky primaries are not as long owing to their visually longer tail length and they will not have that marked reduction (dip) in the secondary wing feathering. Trust me folks, that is going to be a tough one to really nail down in the field, just try your best to get full on shots of the back – I shall do better next time now that I know what to look for.

By now I had completely forgotten about those other two rarities I was there to get. Trying my best to get decent shots of this small and rather active bird was a good workout for the arms. The serious backlighting was not helping my plight at all. Eventually Linda saw me dancing through the woods trying to stay on track with my new friend and came over to see if I had found what I was looking for – “Nope, but get the pie ordered, we have ourselves another lifer“.

Hammond’s spend their winter months in Central America, but move up into the northwest quarter of the US with a stretch into Canada and into the heart of Alaska for the frisky season. We were fortunate enough to catch this specimen as it was migrating through to the mature conifer forests up north.

You are likely curious as to the name Hammond’s – it does seem a bit overly possessive. Cornell states that it was named after the first individual to collect and send the specimens to the first curator of the Smithsonian Institute. I don’t think I need to decipher the word “collect” in that context. I get a little worked up when I listen to the founding organizations of ornithology preach conservation knowing their past. Sorry, I digress…I did find it interesting that the bird that prefers conifers was spending all its time in Madera hunting in none cone bearing trees.

I absolutely got caught up in the moment and forgot to get the gentleman’s name that put me on to this specimen. I try my best to learn the names of the various birders we meet along the way as oftentimes we end up seeing each other at other birding spots along the way and some even turn into lifelong friends – having a network of great birders is a wonderful asset in the field!

All I have for you today – hope you enjoyed a look at a new addition to the life list. Wondering if I ever got those other two rarities in the tin?…just gonna have to wait and see on that….