Been a long time getting to this post.  Will have to get a catch up of 2022 up shortly also.  December 26th the pups and I headed up to a VRBO north of Cheboygan.  Intent was to look around the Eastern U.P. for birds and property.  Fairly successful on the first, not so much on the second.  The pups handled the 4.5 hour drive fairly well, only having to stop once.  Neither one have been on a vacation like this before.  Been a long time since I've been on a vacation like this.  

Not much happening on the 27th as the wind and snow was pretty brutal after having exceptional weather for the drive up.  The morning of the 28th started off great as we got ready to head over the bridge.  I heard some really odd calls and looked up on the pine trees of the rental.  There was a Blue Jay calling, and these birds looked nearly as big as Blue Jays, but wrong shape.  I finally got my binoculars out and sure enough lifer Pine Grosbeaks!!!  Didn't even leave the driveway.  Got some acceptable photos to boot.  I didn't realize they were such a big bird.  

I drove around some odd back roads not really caring where I was going.  Ran into a few flocks of Common Redpolls.  Very skittish, and unable to locate and potential Hoary.  Downtown Dafter gave me even better looks at some Pine Grosbeaks.  After much driving around, and turning around at roads that were closed down due to being seasonal only, I finally arrived at Dafter Dump.  Absolutely love that place.  Gull heaven!!  I stayed out on the road, not realizing it looks like you can access inside lower level.  It was okay.  Might b the highest number of Herring Gulls I've ever seen.  I nabbed at least 2 Iceland Gulls, a single Ring-billed Gull (apparently rarish), 4 Glaucous Gulls and a Great Black-backed Gull.  A bunch of Bald Eagles and Common Ravens.  

More backroads and I located some Grouse out in a field.  After getting some pics and consulting my Sibley guide I figured out there were lifer Sharp-tailed Grouse.  Of course any Grouse would have been lifers for me.  I had 12 of them actively feeding out in a field.  

I made my way down to the Rudyard area looking for Snowy Owls.  The "Loop" of Hantz and Centerline didn't disappoint.  I had 2 Snowy Owls on my drive down Hantz, along with 2 Lapland Longspurs that tagged as rare.  One of the latest dates in eBird for them in Chippewa County.  They were mixed in with 240 plus Snow Bunting.  Centerline brought on 3 more Snowy Owls.  Then it was time to head back.  

The 30th we headed back over the bridge.  Again the Loop around Rudyard really didn't disappoint.  Hantz road had 5 Snowy Owls!!!  Centerline had 2 more.  Found another one heading in to Rudyard, along with a Sharp-tailed Grouse up in the tree of a house on Highway 48.  Another 2 Snowy further north on Centerline.  Again I did some driving around random roads, and came across a Northern Shrike on Kinross Road.  Dafter Dump was a little rough as it was heavy snow for a while there.  I counted 40 Bald Eagles, as a minimum hanging out there.  Absolutely amazing number.  Heading back to the bridge we ran back along some back road to Rudyard and came across what felt like a lifer to me.  A almost pure white adult male Snowy Owl!!!  It was such an awesome sighting I turned back around and took more pics of it.  One more Snowy flew across I-75 and landed in a Pine Tree as we were heading back South.  A very cool sighting to end the day.

Definitely loved the experience.  I got 7 FOY birds, and 4 lifers on that trip.  Biggest dip was Bohemian Waxwings.  Never managed to find them.  Now they haunt my Michigan needs list nearly daily.  Really hoping I can manage to get a place up there to make it a little easier to bird up there more often.  A ton of places I still didn't even get to there.  

2021 is in the bag, and it turned out to be the best County year ever.  212 birds for myself, and I only dipped on 10 as we got to 222 for the year.  I took a trip up North from 12/26 to 12/31, and will do a separate post on that once I get through my pics.  It may have cost me another bird as this afternoon a Great Black-backed Gull was reported at Duck Lake by Amy Lysski.  

A White-throated Sparrow on the B.C. CBC flagged as rare on 12/18.  The CBC started out great, but then my species count stalled out.  Heavy snow at times didn't help things.  On 12/23 I finally snagged a Red-necked Grebe at Duck Lake.  Bird was way across the lake, but unmistakeable.  Long bill, long neck and big head with some red on it.  This ended up being my last County bird for the year.   A new high of 212.  6 more species than my previous high.  The adult and 2nd Winter Lesser Black-backed Gull were also out there on the 23rd.  The Grebe continued for me until my last trip to Duck Lake on 12/25.

On the 24th I dipped up to Eaton County, maybe 5 miles from the county line to get a FOY Greater White-fronted Geese on Narrow Lake.  I was close to my high for the year in Michigan, a paltry 220.  The Geese were #217 for the year in Michigan.  That and wanting to check out some properties up north prompted me to haul the puppies up north to check for some year birds, and lifers.  I'll discuss the Up North separately.  Today on 1/1 I had my first January recored of American Wigeon, with 2 mixed in with Mallards in the backwater.  

2021 really did turn out to be an incredible year for the bird, despite the interruptions from Chaos.  We finally got over 220 birds for the County, after hitting 218 twice.  New month birds were

1. Jan- 10 (highlights - Hoary Redpoll, White-winged Scoter)
2. Feb - 9 (highlights - Black-legged Kittiwake, Barrow's Goldeneye)
3. Mar - 9 (highlights - Solitary Sandpiper that was earliest bird ever for Michigan)
4. Apr - 4 (highlights - Black-necked Stilt)
5. May - 5 (highlights - White-eyed Vireo first visual sighting, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Yellow-breasted Chat, Golden-winged Warbler)
6. Jul - 3 (highlights - American Avocet)
7. Aug - 1
8. Sep - 9 (highlights - Ruddy Turnstone, Philadelphia Vireo, Canada Warbler)
9. Oct - 5 (highlights - Stilt Sandpiper, American Golden-plover, Lesser Black-backed Gull, and Black Scoter)
10. Nov - 3 (highlights - Lesser Black-backed Gull, Northern Shrike)
11. Dec - 5 (highlights - Red-necked Grebe, Short-eared Owl)

I added 5 new county lifers for the year, and potentially lost one or gained one depending on the outcome of a submission for Ruff, in place of Buff-breasted Sandpiper.  

1. Black-legged Kittiwake
2. Barrow's Goldeneye
3. Black-necked Stilt
4. American Avocet
5. Ruddy Turnstone

In addition to the above we added to eBird a record of Long-eared Owl.  This puts my records up to 292 for the County historically.  The 8 county area also had Black-bellied Whistling-Duck and Black-legged Kittiwake to bring the total eBird birds for the area to 321.  

Not sure how we can top 2021.  I'll have to work on my spreadsheet and see what of the 321 birds seen around the area, still haven't been reported here.  Really was a great year, and who knows what will happen in 2022.  I may dip outside of the county more as I'd like to see if I can get into the top 200 for the State.