This is Bird Note. I'm Jay Drew Lanham, an ornithologist, naturalist, and writer, and this is a note I've written to a bird I love.

Dear Woodpewee, thanks so much for bringing a bit of mystery to my backyard.

There's something so tropical about having you in my little South Carolina acreage.

It's not that Phoebe and great-crested flycatcher don't excite me.

They do.

But something about your sallying, your little leaps off the branch to nab a fly just make you

different.

Okay, being totally honest, there's been a time or two when you perched high up on top of the

neighbor's dying maple snag, and I thought you might be an olive-sided flycatcher,

but you turned into better light and your vest wasn't quite right.

To top it off, you let a bit of your late summer song slip out.

Pia!

So understatedly simple and definitive, it's kind of easy when you say your name like that.

So anyway, hope you found my little pseudo-pine savannah satisfactory.

I know you dig that kind of park-like setup.

So be careful, Pee-wee.

Travel safely back south. Hope to hear you here next year. Catch you, but not flies. Later. Drew.