Sorry for not having a pic, but I walked out to see the bird without having my camera..

Bird: approx 8 inches tall, gray head, red ring around eyes, black chest, beautiful brown (checker like pattern) wings and an extremely noticeable white patch on back when it flew away. It made a whooping type cry when it flew away as well. It was perched on my concrete end post on my fence. Also, it's eyes flashed white or silver when it seemed to blink. What a gorgeous bird, and i'll kick myself now for not grabbing my camera.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

One more thing, the beak was black, thin and about 1.5 to 2 inches in length.

Sounds like it could be a Northern Flicker.

_________________
Deon van der Heever
Maple Ridge, BC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deonvanderheever/

Deon,

Thank you. I am not a bird person, but when I saw it, I needed to know so I joined to ask the question. That is almost identical to the bird I saw. Beauty for sure.
Thanks again.

The answer to "I saw a strange bird" questions is always "northern flicker".

Heehee, its true too!