Bird Story Photography By Kathleen Bailey

Field Notes — 14 October 2026

  • Curious Western Wood-Pewee in an Oregon White Oak

  • Western Wood-Pewee at Scatter Creek

  • Juvenile White-crowned Sparrow among blackberry vines at Violet Prarie

  • Barred Owl peaks out from behind tree at Nisqually

  • Belted Kingfisher male in big leaf maple tree at Beachcrest

  • Brown Creeper · Nisqually NWR

  • Golden-crowned Kinglet female looking for insects in Nisqually forest

  • Sharp-shinned Hawk · Nisqually NWR

Western Wood-Pewee Contopus sordidulus

Scatter Creek Wildlife Area · South Puget Sound · Spring and summer

A Curious Wood-Pewee and Other Birds in Autumn

A Western Wood Pee-Wee watching me closely and more birds among fall colors.

Photographed & written by Kathleen Bailey · ~4 min read

My favorite season is autumn and I love to photograph birds with backgrounds of fall colors. Our big leaf maples are still in the process of attaining their full gorgeous color so I’m including some photos of birds in maples from last year. But the photos I’m most excited to share are of a Wood-Peewee taken at Scatter Creek in late August of this year, technically not yet fall. These flycatchers return to Central and South America at the end of August or by mid September, so these photos made it into my fall field note.

Whenever I want a chuckle I look at the photo of the Wood-PeeWee with head tilted, looking at me curiously. It’s definitely one of my favorites. I think he or she was as interested in me as I was of him.

Responses

A moderated comments section is on the way. For now, Kathleen shares and discusses each entry with the Pacific Northwest Birding group.