Western Wood Pewee

An alert little western wood pewee, 7” x 6”, black ink wash on watercolor paper. I’ve seen plenty of eastern wood pewees back in NY but hadn’t yet gotten a positive identification of the near-identical western wood pewee since coming to Alaska. One warm, sunny day back in early June I decided to check a trail where I had a possible but unconfirmed pewee sighting the summer before. We hiked up the trail out of dense woods and into a brushy, open hillside where a wildfire had occurred some years before. It’s a great spot for wildflowers and for butterflies. There was lots of bird activity too, including singing Wilson’s and yellow-rumped warblers and little pine siskins. Then suddenly, a small gray flycatcher flitted down onto a branch. After a look from side to side it was gone again. It took some waiting and watching for better views before I felt confident that I had found at least one pewee, and maybe two. Better still, I watched as one flew up onto a nest in the branches and settled down. And in exactly the same spot I thought I might have seen one the year before. With the frozen stillness and snow of December, a delicate little flycatcher now seems of an entirely different world.