Jan 8 and 9 found us thinking that our luck might be running pretty warm. So, we struck out both days to ‘see what we could see’. January 8 gave up a Great Blue Heron, a Golden Eagle, Northern Harrier, and another first for my daughter- a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker. We stopped along an agricultural backroad and saw two flickers fighting. She put her binoculars on the birds much sooner than did I, and she said it there was a red-shafted flicker fighting with a yellow-shafted flicker. Sure enough, I saw it as well. So, I got the camera out- right away, the red shafted bird flew off and the yellow shafted went lower on the tree and started looking for food. We stayed for about 15 minutes and I took a ridiculous number of pictures, only one of which shows the yellowish edge of the tail. Nothing to really ‘prove’ that we saw it. But we know we did.
Jan 9 found us way out east of town (again) looking for Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs. On December 30, we had seen the Buntings for certain, a nice flight of Grey Partridges and one dark colored bird mixed in with a couple dozen Horned Larks that might have been a Longspur. We hoped to get all three for the new year. The Partridges were absent as was the Longspur, but we were able to snap a couple of modest images of the Snow Buntings. The Larks were everywhere- but you have to stop and wait and look long as hard to see them. They blend in with the ground cover so well, that until they either burdt into flight or waddle about, they are essentially invisible.
A bit later in the day, we scored a Norther Shrike, Bufflehead, and Gadwall. All told, 47 species for the yera on Jan 9. Woot!
Nature, every day. 
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