I did some digging through old The Jack Pine Warbler journals today, and found a record from Lawrence Walkinshaw of a Bewick's Wren.  This is a new record for the county I didn't have in my records previously.  I also found some updated first county records for Warblers.  I need to dig through these systematically and see what else can be found. 

There is only a nearby record from Jackson County of Bewick's Wren in eBird from 1922/23.  This makes it one of the rarest birds ever recorded in the county.  This species also happens to be a review species.  I may have to reach out to someone on the committee regarding this record.  I didn't ever see it in the MBRC notes as accepted or rejected.  This would make 280 birds for the County, and 7 additional birds that iNaturalist has listed with no records.  In the course of this same research I removed Passenger Pigeon from iNaturalist only.  Walkinshaw listed Passenger Pigeon as being common in the area in the 1870's, based on recollections from his Grandfather.  

This record is from The Jack Pine Warbler Vol. 23 No. 2 - April 1945.  

Personal highlights in the past few days was nabbing birds #29 and #30 in the yard for the month with a couple Brown Creepers, and a calling Belted Kingfisher.  Another highlight was this Bald Eagle on Beadle Lake.  It is not quite in full adult plumage yet.  

The Sharp-shinned Hawk returned to spook up the birds from the feeder.  I don't recall ever seeing a Sharpie with that much white on the tip of its tail.  Very few Cooper's Hawks have shown that much white on their tail tip.  The final highlight I was not able to document though.  It was nearly 60 degrees the night of 12/26, and there was 1 possibly 2 moths outside that night.  They/it spooked very easily, so they never settled long enough to get a snapshot.  I was really hoping to get some documentation shots.  

Things have been relatively quiet around here since the CBC/Big Yard Day.  Snow has gone, and along with that chances for finding Snow Bunting and Lapland Longspurs.  It has at least kept some water open on Duck Lake and Beadle Lake.  Still nothing significant on either of those locations.  

I still have the male and female cismontanus ssp. Dark-eyed Junco hanging out.  The White-crowned Sparrow continues for a late date of 12/20.  I had a Great Horned Owl calling in the yard on 12/19.  This was the 28th species this month for the yard.  Not sure I can get to 30, but we shall see.  

I did a possible last run around the county hitting up Duck Lake on the 21st.  I had an odd looking goose there.  I had confirmation on Whatbird of Domestic x Canada, and iNaturalist I had the ID as leucistic Canada Goose, both from one person.  I still think it has too many characteristics of a hybrid.  I also had a candidate for a Lesser Black-backed Gull juvenile.  Just too warm, too much mirage and too far out there to get really good shots at it.  

High counts of Trumpeter Swans continue on Beadle Lake, as well as some quantity of Cackling Geese.  Christmas Eve night had 2 Great Horned Owls calling.  I tried to get some audio, but before I could hit record I heard a scream and then nothing.  I'll have to keep trying for that.  5 Cacklers flew over on Christmas Morning on the tail end of a flight of 24 Canada Geese.  

I have to believe the quantity of content will be hampered with the focus on the Yard next year.  I've been noodling over some different things I can do.  May get in to some more "research" or analysis.  Nothing likely ground-breaking, but more of education for myself.  Once I read through some more Dark-eyed Junco material I may start up with some posts on some current research related to identification.  This White-winged Junco candidate had me doing quite a bit of research on subspecies ID in anticipation of documenting it for the MBRC.  

I have started working on some posts related to the different Excel files I use.  One file uses my eBird data for my own records.  A second file is Calhoun County focused, using data from eBird for the 8 county area.  This series will take a couple dozen posts, based on my initial draft.  

Had a decent look at a junco with a very defined grey hood and red back, with grey/pink mixed flanks this afternoon.  I've had some juncos in the past that have had grey heads, brown back and buffy flanks.  This is the first bird I can recall that had a very defined hood with a clear convex shape on the chest.  

I also had the first junco that immediately stuck out based on size.  I didn't manage any other decent shots of it, especially when it took off.  This bird was bigger than the nearby White-crowned Sparrow but too far away to get in the same frame.  You can see some difference in the second shot below.  I am hopeful the bird sticks around for some more shots.  Unfortunately at this point it will have to wait until the weekend to try to look for it.  

I had two Turkey Vultures flying over Lowes/Walmart making this a late date for them for me.  

Not quite as Big a Day as yesterday, but I'm starting the Yard focus today.  Surpassed my previous December Yard-high of 17 within 90 minutes of the start this morning.  Between window watching and standing outside for well over an hour I managed 22 species.  Highlight being a new Yard Bird with two of the Cackling Geese from Beadle Lake sighted flying over.  I had that as a target considering the Geese fly out of there right over the house regularly.  I also tallied 827 Canada geese both flying out and flying in, along with 31 Trumpeter Swans.  The Swans coming in groups of 2, 7, 15, 5 and 2 overhead.  FOY for the yard Herring Gulls along with some Ring-billed Gulls also floated above.  Finally a male House Finch with a head that reminded me of Peppermint Candy made a brief appearance at the feeders.  

My next focused birding time after noon brought the returning Dark-eyed Junco (cismontanus ssp.), along with a White-crowned Sparrow.  Checking my past sightings it looks like this is a latest date for the White-crowned for me.  Nice surprise on the ground, and for the day.  

My last outing before dusk had 531 Canada Geese flying out of Beadle Lake, a few Sandhill flying in, and the White-crowned Sparrow returning.  I was sitting at 23 species at this point.  A very high pitched squeak coming from a woodpecker put me on a Hairy Woodpecker for #24.  I had several instances where the birds vacated the feeders quickly, but never could find what was causing it.  Likely missing the Sharp-shinned Hawk setting up nearby.  Just before I had given up for the night I caught #25, Red-tailed Hawk soaring just over the tree tops.  The only yard birds I had had previously this month, and missed today, were Carolina Wren and the Sharpie.

Looking forward to seeing what else shows up with some more concerted effort in my yard in the coming year.  It was still just as relaxing and enjoyable as driving 100+ miles searching around the county, or walking around one of the local hotspots for 4 hours.  The Herring Gull and Cackling Goose gave me 117 for the year, and the Cackler was number 145 in total.  Herring Gull, Eastern Bluebird and White-crowned Sparrow pushed the Month to 27, which is higher than previous high of 24 for December in the yard.  

Today I participated in the BC CBC.  I started a little later than intended for the Owling.  It ended up being very quiet for owls for me.  I had one Barred Owl scream, and that was it.  One Screech-Owl gave a very faint scream.  No hoots or trills at all.  Luckily that wasn't a sign of things to come.  My first bird of the daylight hours was a flying Great Blue Heron.  One I wasn't sure I'd get, but I ended up with 2 of them.  On that same stretched I had dueling Carolina Wren.  No phishing or playback required.  

I had 13 species by the time I got to Waubascon Lake, which surprisingly had little in waterfowl on it.  The 4 domestic geese there caused me some brief puzzlement with their "calls" that sounded like screams.  Hutchinson Road where the Waubascon Creek wetland area is had a nice male Ring-necked Pheasant there, with another calling.  It booked into the reeds as a truck had stopped to check him out on the other side.  I wasn't able to get the camera in time.  Nice find for the CBC today.  I think my only contribution that was unique for it.  

The area I have has multiple similar areas like that with creeks and wetland areas.  I got really lucky at one on Meachem Road with my FOY Red-shouldered Hawk soaring over the marshy area, and landed briefly.  Definitely my best bird of the day as I had given up on finding one this year.  A few other highlights were a Bald Eagle I almost gave up as a clump of leaves in a tree, a lone Golden-crowned Kinglet, and another Red-shouldered Hawk when I went back to Waubascon Lake for its facilities.  

By the time I got to the tally meetup I had 35 species, all in Calhoun.  42 was my previous high on two other occasions.  I had a good feeling about surpassing the number.  I tried for the Peregrine Falcon downtown, but it didn't show.  I'm afraid they may have been spooked out of there with the construction.  The last sighting was in July downtown.  The Millpond gave me Herring Gulls, Sandhill Cranes and a Common Goldeneye was still there.    Beadle Lake had a decent size spot of open ice with a few hundred Canada geese, with a surprise Greater Scaup mixed in, and 3 Cackling Geese!!  

Upon arriving home I was prepping to head back out try to add more birds, when I noticed two Downy and an American Goldfinch still as stone on the feeders.  None of them were moving a single muscle.  Sure enough when I went outside the Sharp-shinned Hawk took off.  I headed out into the drizzle hoping for some open water on Goguac Lake, and to Hart's Lake where some birds I needed were sighted earlier.  Goguac had nothing on it.  Hart's Lake was so dark I couldn't find the Lesser Scaup or Hooded Merganser there.  Luckily two I needed were easy to find in the overcast light.  2 Trumpeter Swans flew in calling, and for number 43 there were 4 Mute Swans.  

My last running around birding day, with over 150 miles travelled, ended up being a really good one.  Was nice to go out on a high note for some time.  Here's hoping the dropped top on the Jeep for much of the day doesn't come back to bite me.  

In anticipation of Big Yard Year I have some numbers below for highs

• Day
  • Jan - 16 on multiple occasions
  • Feb - 22
  • Mar - 33
  • Apr - 39
  • May - 63
  • Jun - 27
  • Jul - 29
  • Aug - 18
  • Sep - 26
  • Oct - 28
  • Nov - 26
  • Dec - 17
• Month
  • Jan - 24
  • Feb - 32
  • Mar - 50
  • Apr - 68
  • May - 90
  • Jun - 38
  • Jul - 39
  • Aug - 26
  • Sep - 45
  • Oct - 41
  • Nov - 38
  • Dec - 24
• Year
  • 115

Chaos will be driving the next 6 months or so into a forced focus on yard-birding.  It is something that has been popping up as a goal anyway, so next year is as good a time to do it as any.  There hasn't been enough snow to push too much activity to the feeders.  Just enough to get some Sharp-shinned Hawk action a few times in the past couple of weeks.  

Yesterday I had one go after the feeder.  It is amazing to see how alert the birds at the feeder are.  They took off en masse several seconds before the Sharpie popped into view.  The Sharpie took up several perches around the yard, and chased after a Cardinal briefly.  I headed outside to see if I could get some better pics of it.  I ended up spooking up a bird that bounced off one of my windows.  The hawk flew up the yard, and past me at 10 feet at a 60 degree angle.  It reminded me of the Great Horned that flew over my head.  Great naked eye looks.  It perched a couple of times and I managed a few more shots before it headed off to the West.  

Other highlights in the past couple of weeks have been the number of Trumpeter Swans continue to be high.  I had 19 flyover on 12/1.  Also on 12/8 at Goguac Lake I was able to see the/a leucustic Trumpeter Swan with bright orange legs.  A nice late Turkey Vulture was visible driving down Beadle Lake road on 12/6.  I looked at my records and still not the latest I've had one here.  The Millpond off Riverside and Dickman had a large number of Herring Gulls with a couple of fairly clean headed ones, and one still holding on to the bright yellow breeding bill on it.  

December 8th brought a report of a Snow Goose at Reiger park in Albion.  When I arrived, there were no birds there.  I found the local domestic goose on the Cemetery side of the pond.  At Barnes Park there were over 250 Canada Geese and some Mallards, but no white goose there.  The record was accepted in eBird and it wasn't a newbie birder.  I did manage to pick out a Greater White-fronted Goose mixed in with the CANG.  Closest I have been to one, but still tough to get pics with it mixed in a large flock.  While I was out I hit up Duck Lake and was disappointed.  It was so windy everything was at the South end, and there isn't a great spot to sit and spot from there.  Around R DR N area between 19.5 and 21 Mile Road were well over 1000 Sandhill Cranes.  

On the White-winged Junco candidate I had some correspondence with David Sibley.  He says he is confident it isn't an aikeni.  The size was always an issue, and I've yet to find any pic of them next to Slate-colored.  I mentioned that to Mr. Sibley and it prompted him to look and noticed the same thing.  He did provide me a pic of what he considers the typical White-winged.  It was definitely a lighter colored bird than mine.  He said he wasn't surprised that a Slate-colored could potentially have as much white in the tail feathers as my bird had.  It was fun to do some research and trying to get my mind working on doing something a little more than what Chaos offers.  

Trying to get some expert opinions on this bird.