Flycatcher & flyover ID help, Cheesman Park, Denver Co

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Jared Del Rosso

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May 2, 2015, 3:09:33 PM5/2/15
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I spent much of this morning at Cheesman Park and the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver. The highlight of the trip was an Osprey that flew over the park. I didn't believe myself when I first observed it and was badly out of place to get much of a view, peering at it, from a distance, and from between trees at the Gardens. Thankfully, the bird caught a thermal on the northeastern edge of Cheesman and I was able to catch up and get some poor photographs that revealed enough to show that it was, in fact, an Osprey. 

But I'm writing to solicit some help identifying a flycatcher that was around the playground on the western edge of the park. I did not hear the bird vocalize. It was foraging high (15-20 feet, it seemed to me) in mostly, but not exclusively, conifer trees. It stood still long enough for me to get some okay photographs. The bird has a fairly noticeable eye ring and, it seems to me, a beak too long to be a Least or Dusky flycatcher. My experience with flycatchers is limited, though, so I'd like to get some further input. Photographs of the bird can be viewed at: https://birderbyaccident.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/cheesman-park-flycatcher/

I also took some awful photographs, from a bad angle and a distance, of a bird that flew in with turkey vulture, but does not look to me to be one of them. I don't know if the silhouette contains a clue to the identity of the bird, but I'm at a loss. The wings appear, in the photographs, rather curved and pointed, but that, I suspect, might be an outcome of the angle, distance, and light. Again, they may not be revealing enough to lead to an id, but it seemed worth posting. Photos are here: https://birderbyaccident.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/cheesman-park-flyover/

Thanks,

Jared Del Rosso
Denver, CO
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