This afternoon December 10, on Hooper Lane in Butte Creek Canyon I became aware of a ringing, single note whistle from the top of a tree and a similar "fooeet" reply from another tree. Directly over my head a male phainopepla chased an insect in a circle, showing off it's striking white wing patches, then perched on a bare branch, providing me extended looks at it's intense red-eye and trade-mark 'hair-doo'!
