Thanks for the lead, but I'm still not sure. I looked at 3 different photos of All Together and they all looked different! The one at C&T Iris patch looks like a bitone; the one at Dave's has similar color to mine but much more rounded shape; the one at DVIS has similar shape to mine, but seems to be a much truer lemony color --so who knows! None of them mention blooming season. I got this at an iris club sale. I should probably bring the picture to the next club sale and see if anyone can identify it.

A lot of guesswork here but, based on the color description of the bird, I'd start with Red-bellied Woodpecker and Northern Flicker. Maybe even give Yellow-bellied Sapsucker a whirl. All three are woodpeckers; they have a distinctive look and behavior (electronic sound, not so much, IMO). If not a woodpecker then.......the only birds I can think of that I'd personally describe as having an "electronic" sounding call would be the Blue Jay and maybe the Eastern Kingbird. Blue Jays obviously have no red, and Eastern Kingbirds only show a red crown patch when highly agitated. Ruby-crowned Kinglets are itty bitty, never sit still, rarely show their red crown, and don't sound electronic. A female Northern Cardinal would flick her tail and meet the physical description from above, but I don't think they sound electronic. Perhaps a slightly metallic warning call but, then again, I don't want to assume folks don't know a Cardinal when they see it (they are so common). Perhaps give House Finch and Purple Finch a look, but eh......not so electronic sounding, really. It's tough to make a good guess without a better description of the call and the bird. This post was edited by TMFF on Mon, Jun 17, 13 at 15:01

Thank you so much!! I will do that. First I better tell you the area we're in. We live in Illinois between the Mississippi River and Rock River in the Quad Cities (Ever hear of the Rock Island lines or John Deere of Moline, Illinois?...well, we're from the Rock Island/Moline area.) Here is the wading bird that's so dark looking. I'm so sorry these photos are so small and hard to see...there was a huge marshy area between me and the birds. I'm in the market for a better zoom lens, but WOW have you seen the price of them?? This is the swooper...some sort of plover or sandpiper maybe? At first I thought it was a swallow of some sort...then when I saw the photo I thought maybe a killdeer, but I don't think so. Sorry these are poor photos too...it flashed by me so quickly, I just snapped away as a spur of the moment thing! Would someone please confirm that this is a female redwing blackbird? This one was from a different day in the woods. There were lots of orioles, bluebirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, and a myriad of other birds in this area. I was wondering if it could be a female oriole...the tail doesn't seem long enough. Again, sorry for the quality, it was a long way away from me. I did unspeakable things to this photo to get it to even show any markings but the color is just not there. Thanks so much for any help! Ginni (the bird challenged)

That's a juvenile Hermit Warbler..these guys have a very limited US breeding distribution. Usually seen up high in conifers.