Somehow it turned into a whirlwind of December

I've somehow managed to rack up 7 FOY birds this month, so far.  I've hit that 3 other times, but they were all basically catch up birds that didn't even get me to 200.  6 of the 7 at least were catch up birds for the year.  The 7th was a big one that put the county at 226 for the year, tied with last year for best year.  Ed Hicks, late on the 17th, found a juvenile Glaucous Gull on Duck Lake.  Despite the late hour, Herc and I rushed out there, and with some help from Nolan Williams got on the beast of a bird in the middle of the Ring-billed raft.  A really nice bird that unfortunately didn't make another appearance.

Chaos wreaked havoc through most of the month.  I did managed to get out of work on time on the 8th and catch some brief glimpses of a couple Short-eared Owls.  Then went to Albion College and snagged the Black-crowned Night Heron for a new December bird.  This bird hung out for quite a while with last sighting on Christmas Eve.  Besides a trip to Grevers on 12/9 to try for Crossbills, we didn't get back out until 12/14 to try to snage the Northern Shrike for #206 on the year.  

The CBC started on 12/16.  Got out there probably later than I should have for the owls I needed.  Ended up strking out on any owls.  I did manage some FOY Pine Siskins finally with a flyover at Waubascon Lake and 8 at Bedford Cemetary, while looking for Crossbills.  Another nice find was this leucistic juvenile Trumpeter Swan.  It lacks the dusty grey that a normal juvenile would have this time of the year.  Note also the orange legs.    

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.