Charlie Spencer

Doin' da bump.

@dragon49, what do use to take photos? Respectfully, the birds in many of them are silhouetted and underexposed. Is your camera able to adjust aperture, shutter speed, or exposure?

Knock out some push-up; it'll pass.

The bird clearly isn't starving so the bill must be functional.

It's 'pah-roo-LAY'. It's French, mon amis.

The last time I checked, I wasn't. Yeah, my avatar is. She's the best of my PIWO photos. Males have a red moustache.

Look again; that bird's female.

As a network administrator, I advise against using flash drives and memory cards for long term storage. They're not reliable over a few years, and they're too easy to lose. If these photos really matter that much to you, I recommend spending the $150+ or so for an external hard drive. But flash driver or full external hard drive, remember that all you've bought is storage. You haven't bought any backup capability. If something happens to your chosen storage device, you're going to lose everything on it. The best way to protect your data in the long run is to have a second copy. The easiest ways to do that are either to pay for a cloud storage service (you're not going to get two terabytes for free), or to buy a second external hard drive and copy the first drive to it. If you go with duplicating your files on a second drive, you'll have to recopy the first drive periodically. How often is up to you, based on how often you add new data to the first drive. I also strongly recommend storing the second drive away from the first one, either at work or with a family member or friend.

Incidentally, I'm amazed someone can recognize an unfamiliar call he heard three weeks ago!

Your bird, your call. The sighting is three weeks old, so it's not like you have to make up your mind today with just two opinions. I (kinda) understand where Hasan's coming from but I report what I think I can positively ID. If that causes others to have negative opinions of me, or the checklist entry to be blocked from public view, so be it. If I can't ID it to my satisfaction, I don't report it; I've left potential lifers ID'ed by others off lists if I couldn't ID the bird myself. As long as I can look myself in the mirror, I'm good.

Check to see if Merlin has recordings of a similar sounding Sora. If not, report it and reference the Merlin recording. What do you lose? If you honestly think it was a Black Rail, I don't see a reason to NOT report it.

@insanityslave, don't think the name 'Western' means they're found only in the west. I've seen both subspecies at the same time here in SC.

Tony? Is that you?

???

I've twitched exactly twice, the first time and the last, and I did them both at once. Too much stress.

Now those look like dogwood leaves!

I'd swear the bird's feet are on the same spot on the branch in all three photos.

Don't feel bad. I had 1, 3, and 4 as Chipping also. (But you can feel bad about missing the HOFI! )

You can make out the dark facial mask in this photo. Look for the white triangular central area from the leading patagials tapering back to the end of the belly, bordered by contrasting wide dark diagonal underwing markings. Osprey hover pretty well, too.

Species names will be corrected, but nobody's mad. Well, except for maybe 'Canadian Goose'. That one seems to really rot some folks' suet cakes.

RCKI would have a broken eye ring, narrower bill, and strong white-over-black wing bars. (Also, RCKI photos are much blurrier )

Just for clarification, when I said "I don't think it's dark enough for Common...", I meant the bird overall, not strictly the cap. But I agree with Common for the carpal bars I overlooked.

Well, I did a quick Google for 'Western Kentucky birding groups' but I couldn't find any active groups. There's a state organization but it appears to mostly active in the central areas. I found references to groups in Hopkinsville and Hartford but those references lead nowhere; apparently those groups are inactive. That's a shame, because birding with an organized group is one of the best ways to improve your skills.

This. If you go with a hat, cap, or visor, get one with a flexible brim. Some headgear have a curved rigid visor that blocks bringing your optics up where you really want them.

I've seen cardinals and mocks eat them. Leaves on this plant are wrong for dogwood.