Western Wood-Pewee, New Hampshire - 5/29/11

Headed to Rye Harbor at dawn on 5/29 to try to find the White-winged Dove that was present there the day before.  In fact it landed on a whale watching boat at sea and stayed on board until the boat reached shore.  After an hour of searching with no luck for the dove, I headed to Rye Harbor State Park to try over there.

I arrived at Rye Harbor State Park at 7:30 but again had no luck on the dove.  But soon after I arrived I heard a bird singing distantly but couldn't quite place it.  It was singing a full song with two phrases, something like - pee-de-dit  pee-eer.  The first phrase rose in intonation and the second dropped in pitch and was very nasal.  It was a bit like an Eastern Phoebe.  Heard it 3-4 times.  The location was in a small hedgerow along a stone wall in the park just SW of the guard shack.  After a short walk around the park I came back to the hedgerow and heard the bird calling again.  Still couldn't place it though.  During this time I saw a number of birds in the hedgerow including a Pewee which seemed to have a very dark vest and a hint of yellowish color in the middle of the chest.  I commented to myself that wouldn't it be something if that were a Western Pewee.  After about 10 seconds seeing that bird it flew back into the hedge out of view.  Then the unknown song continued - I heard it sing 15-20 times.  I pulled out my MP-3 player and played a number of flycatcher calls on the Stokes CD until I got to the Western Pewee call - it was a perfect match. 

Then spent the next couple minutes calling every NH birder that I had a number for.

I had no more observations of the bird till about 8:15, when I heard it calling from across the road in the brushy area where the road takes a sharp left as you're heading north.  It gave one full song, but otherwise just gave the nasal pee-eer call 10-15 more times.  I did not see the bird across the road.  Last had the bird about 8:20.

There were quite a number of migrants in the immediate vicinity at the time.  It was very foggy with extremely low visibility causing a bit of a fallout.  Very similar conditions to the previous day when the white-winged dove came ashore nearby.  I had at least 1 silent "Traill's" Flycatcher, a male Blackpoll, 3 Yellowthroats, 2 Magnolias, 2 Red-eyed Vireos, and a number of unidentified warblers giving chips as they flew overhead.

Several other birders arrived soon thereafter but no one else was able to find it.  Quite a number of other migrants had arrived by then, but the mix of birds was different suggesting the initial wave including the Pewee had moved on.   

As for precedents in New England - I don't think there are other records of Western Wood-Pewee in NH.  For MA, I researched Western Pewee sightings in Viet and Petersen's 1993 Birds of Massachusetts.  Their book mentions 4 records of Western Pewee in MA - 2 fall birds and 2 spring birds.  Here's a summary of the spring birds - "Two sight records of birds uttering their species-specific song are believed to be correct:  Monomoy, 28 May 1976 (Goodrich, Bailey); Morris Island, Chatham, 23 May 1980 (Bailey)."  Both are coastal and both in the last few days of May - certainly consistent with the May 29^th bird.