After a short struggle it finallhy dropped to the ground, looked around a bit, and then hopped over to the downed limb I have left for cover for birds in the winter.  It then hopped up the various branches till it found a comfortable perch.  It just chilled there and allowed me to take over 5 minuts of video, and lots of nice close pictures of it about 25 feet away from me.  Even allowed me to lift up the window so I wasn't shooting through the glass.  

It wasn't till after I went through my pictures that I noticed two things.  One it had a full crop, which is probably why it wanted some place to chill, and two it had these amazing blue eyes.  Apparently when they are really young they can have grey/blue eyes before they turn the yellow I am used to seeing.  So this little one is probably the offspring of the resident pair that are nearby, and very recently out of the nest.  

I used this picture to cause some ruckus about the ID of Ashie, potentially being a Nutting's Flycatcher.  Birds of the World, and the Lee book on flycatchers both state that Nutting's will have orange interior to mouth, while Ash-throated is yellow.  

With some help from my nephew I printed up this and framed it to give to Brett, the homeowner as he had a couple of posterboards set out for people to sign.  The QR code will take you to the pictures of Ashie on eBird.  As of this writing, 362 pictures of Ashie are on there.  

As for the rest of 2024, I am not sure how I even managed to get to 201 birds for the year.  I was so focused on moths I had less than 100 checklists from June to end of December.  One bird that got me to run out was a county first Buff-breasted Sandpiper at the only shorebird spot in the county on 9/12.  We got there shortly after dismissing Chaos for the day.  I managed to see 2 Buff-breasted, so got to count one as a self-found.  Also had only 2nd Ruddy Turnstone I've had for the county, and a Stilt Sandpiper.  Shorebird bonanza there.  This was county bird 252 for me, #198 on the year, and a lifer.  Bird #199 was the Peregrine Falcons after numerous fruitless attempts.  

I had numerous days off from Chaos in November and December allowing me to get out some more.  Really wasn't able to find much though until I got a report about a Surf Scoter not 2 miles from me.  Booked over there after another nice walk with Herc at Brooks, and managed to find a nice looking adult male to give me #200 somehow for the year.  Ashie of course made #201 for the year.

2025 I have been running around 4th best pace for the year, and for Jan and Feb the same.  Haven't been going like gangbusters.  Dipped on numerous birds this year: Greater White-fronted Geese, Ross's Goose, Golden Eagle, and Northern Shrike.  I did manage to finally catch the Northern Mockingbird after 3 previous failures.  Best looks at one in the county yet, after dipping on the last one.  I imagine I'll try to do what I can to get to 200, although smart thing will be to focus on some things closer to home.  Both Herc and I need to get more exercise though, so as we can we will continue to make some trips and bird as I can.  Looking forward to a more sane mothing season though at this point.  

​Some pics since last update.

Not birding related, but we did head to the airport first chance the sky cleared to catch the comet Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).  It was about 4 days past the peak, but still pretty impressive.  

Here are some of the very few bird pics I've snapped since the last update.  Not much of note really.  Hopefully by fall migration I'll have enough motivation to nab 6 more birds to get to 200.  

On May 10th we ran out to P DR N to try to view the crazy rare Aurora Borealis display that was hitting.  Again the clouds caused issues, as I couldn't see anything.  I was getting to leave disappointed when I noticed a very bright part of the sky behind the clouds.  I put my camera up to my eye and saw the following.

It was doing the crazy light show, but between all the city lights and the clouds it wasn't visible to the naked eye.  Regardless it was a great show for the camera.

We went back out the next day with clearer skies but a much less impressive, and shorter show.  

The storm did cause me to spend a bit more timing just taking snapshots of the feeder birds though.  Something I haven't done a whole lot of.  My eBird photos of woefully low on just the common birds.  Trying to rectify that slowly.  

Snapped some pics of some cooperative Rock Pigeons, and for some reason this shot just fascinated me, so I've played around with it in Lightroom.  

The Short-eared Owls continued, but with only 4 on the 21st.  No great looks, and very dark out (a theme of the last couple weeks of 2023).  Somehow managed a halfway decent shot of a Northern Harrier, even at 1/250th speed.  

The 23rd managed to be a somewhat banner day for FOY.  We started out at Grever's, still trying to find Red Crossbills.  I debated which way to go after that, and last second chose to track back down H DR N.  As we drove down there I spotted a shape up at top of a dead tree.  Immediately gave off falcon vibes, but was an odd spot for a Kestrel.  Managed to stop without it bolting and got some nice looks at a FOY Merlin.  Had about given up hope on getting one.  After not being able to pick up anything unique at Duck Lake we hit up Voorhees to try for Barred Owl again.  I did a litle playback and had. nothing happen.  As I started to drive off I instinctvely looked back over my shoulder for traffic and saw a noticeable shape in the trees on other side of the road.  There was a Barred Owl staring right at me!!  Managed to catch 1 Short-eared Owl as the light was fading at J DR N.  Then decided to check a spot on G DR N where I have had Eastern Screech-Owl in the past.  A little playback and managed to get a faint "whinny" call.  Early morning on the 24th I had a pair of Great Horned Owls calling.  Not bad, 4 different owls within about 14 hours!

The Screech-Owl got me up to 211 for the year.  24th we headed out yet again, hitting up Kimball Pines Park to try for Crossbills.  I had a Blue Jay that was doing a perfect Red-shouldered Hawk call.  I mean absolutely perfect call.  The Short-eared Owls put on a nice show that evening.  I counted 5 of them with a bonus Rough-legged Hawk attempting to steal a vole from an owl.   

On the 25th the owls didn't put on much of a show, but 8 Northern Harries flagged as rare.  Really close looks of a young male just about geting into full "Grey Ghost" mode!!

Nothing much of note until the 29th we headed to Homer to check for geese at the WTP.  A ton of geese were on the hills around the largest lagoon.  I started to scan through them and saw a very wacky looking bird.  Smaller and much darker than the nearby birds, with a blue-grey color to it.  Turned out to be a young Snow Goose, very dark individual.  This was a nice surprise to get to #212 for the year.  

For a change of pace on the 30th we headed West to Tiscornia Park.  Finally a nice sunny day and what I thought would be nice conditions.  Turned out to be much windier than I had expected.  There was nothing really of note.  A small group of gulls with nothing of note.  Only thing I managed out of this was a couple shots of the lighthouse.  

4 Short-eared Owls continued with some decent looks and nice experiences.  I managed to see a Rough-legged Hawk cause one owl to drop its prey mid-flight.  The hawk quickly drove down to grab it off the ground.  On the 31st we chilled for a little bit and managed a Sharp-shinned Hawk to land about 10 feet from the window trying to nab some birds around the feeder.  That gave me 72 birds for December.  Not bad considering my previous best December was 69.  

I decided to end the year back at the spot that has given me so much joy this year.  We headed back to B DR N, and wow what a show.  3 Short-eared Owls, with 2 of them putting on an incredible show at the road.  Wish I could see the pics the photographers in the white truck with mini-Hubble telescopes managed to get.  2 owls were "fighting" within 30 feet of the road.  Just incredible experience, even from where I was.  Was a perfect way to wind up the year.   

Another couple of nice finds on the CBC were this abieticola Red-tailed Hawk, and close looks at this Red-shouldered Hawk.  

The CBC turned out to be one of my best efforts that I can remember.  I had 35 species, with a high day for me in December of 43.  We decided to head back out after grabbing a bite to eat.  We hit Grevers hoping for Red-breasted Nuthatch or some Crossbills.  All I could manage was a Pileated Woodpecker there.  Duck Lake is where things really paid off with 7 birds there, including a Long-tailed Duck.  We ended up at B DR N Fields for Northern Harrier and another flyover from a Short-eared Owl.  It was dark, but managed some shots as it locked on me and passed over, and slightly East by about 50 feet.  We ended the day at 47 birds.  

The Pine Siskin on the 16th, and Glaucous Gull on the 17th brought me to 208 birds officially making this my 3rd best year in the county somehow.  Not sure how I managed that with the 2 weeks in North Carolina and Chaos being more structured than the previous 2 years.  Luckily I was able to ditch Chaos for the last 2 weeks of the year and get out some (not as much as I wanted to).  

I've decided to try to get to see the Short-eared Owls as much as I can while they are here.  They have already started putting up fence posts for the %#$>*&@ solar farm.  On the 20th we ened over there and had some very close views of one of them, with very poor lighting.  Similar to the above pics these are heaving on the noise reduction.  

I think I'll pick this back up tomorrow with the remainder of December.