A Neat Day

When I went out to pick up the paper this morning it was warm, muggy and breezy. My reaction was maybe I'll be lazy and not go out this morning. Started to read the paper, and said to self, get yourself out of the chair, you can be lazy in January when it's snowing. So off I went. Decided to go to Branched Oak Lake because I haven't spent much time there lately.

Saw a bunch of Great Egrets and got some nice photos of them. There were oodles of Ring-billed Gulls, and Franklin's Gulls. Talked to a guy who said there had been some Sabine's Gulls seen there last evening. I don't believe I saw them. The gulls that I deemed to be Franklin's all had a white ring around the eye, and according to all my books, the Sabine's doesn't that white ring. I proceded on, leaving him to his search. And boy did I hit a jackpot!

When the first of these guys darted out of the undergrowth I thought it was a Northern Bobwhite. Then I realized that guy isn't a Bobwhite.

I present a Chukar


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Another shot


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There were four of them together


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According to the range maps in all my birding books, these guys aren't normally in Nebraska. However, Sibley's says:

Chukars are released regularly in all states for hunting and other purposes, so are frequently seen outside of the mapped range.

I went back to see if the guy I had talked to had found a Sabine's and to tell him about the Chukars. Couldn't find him and there weren't many gulls around by that time.

Can you guess what I will use as motivation the next time I'm feeling lazy? Yuppers, I will remind myself of the Chukars.