oIn the mid ‘70s...maybe as late as ‘78...on the way to drop my 8-year old son off for school in Ames, Iowa, he shouted:”Dad...what bird is THAT?”. We were on a narrow secondary road, so it took a moment to stop and back up...and Jamie shouted: “ There...there it is in that tree!” Given that there were lots of trees about it took a few moments...but there...there it was!

A scizzor-tailed flycatcher....way out of its range.

And it was there the next morning...with a mate... and from the car we located it’s nest in a tree in the front yard of a house along the road. I notified an ornithologist friend at Iowa State University where I was on tha faculty that my son, James had spotted a pair of scizzor-tails and he scoffed...and then drove out to the site and confirmed the sighting as the northern-most record (at that time...Heaven knows where the northernmost record is today...what with climate change and all!) of a breeding pair of scizzor-tails!

Jamie, now 50, still delights in recounting that episode...as do I!

So thanks much for posting this series! I’m forwarding a link to my son!

Dave