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Thank you!!!!

The bad news is @Kevinhasn't posted the new bird of the week.

The good news is, upon first glance, it doesn't look like there's been any spammers the past 2 days.

Halloween was last week. Don't scare me like that!

It's a Red-tailed Hawk fluffed up a bit making it look huge.

Wilson's Snipe after sunset today https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500690911

Had a chance to borrow an 800mm F11 lens for the weekend. I was concerned about such a narrow fixed aperture, but my R7 compensated quite nicely with its high ISO capabilities. The main problem was the lack of birds! Hopefully some more over the next couple days. MODO: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500688971 Bluebird with a splash of fall colors: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500689411

Or was there?How do we know that those posts are the only way they’re spamming? They could be shutting us down for two days so that their posts won’t be removed immediately? 🤔😂

I don't think a monthly contest would hold up but an ANNUAL contest actually sounds like an interesting idea. A best photo of the year contest with a few sub species, I mean sub sections, for categories like flight shots, interaction shots, blurry but interesting shots or those almost good shots etc., etc., might be fun. A few creative categories will probably draw more participation, categories that allow for people with different quality cameras and skill sets to have as good a chance at winning as the best photographer with the most expensive gear has. Throwing in a prize like a free years membership to Whatbird might get more participation in these contests too. 😁 Just thinking out loud here.

Keep in mind that a person can see a species of bird their whole life but it wouldn't become a lifer until after they started birding, learned how to identify the bird and put a name to it, and then added it to their list. Lifers accumulate differently for all birders, the American Robin was the first bird I ever identified with a field guide and would be my first lifer on my list, if I kept one, I'm sure it's not the first bird on every other birder's list though. 😉

Say you see 10 Audubon subs and 4 YRWA species. You also have 6 HOs. As you noted, you can't tell if the HOs are also among the birds you saw. Since you have fewer HOs than sightings, you should assume the ones you heard are among the ones you saw, so report 10 and 4. What if you'd see 10 subs, 4 species, and had 20 HOs? You heard more birds than you saw, so you should assume the ones you saw also among the ones you heard. You heard 20 total and you saw at least 10 of them were subspecies. You don't know anything about the other 10 you heard, so you can only report them as species and HO. 10 subs, 10 species. Did that make a darn bit of sense? The basic principle in the eBird guidelines is to err on the conservative side.

SUPER difficult to determine positive IDs on young swans seen in isolation, but based on some features of the bill and overall structure of the bird, I would lean heavily Tundra on this bird.

Ya, I'd agree with something mammilan, but no way to be certain. Just in case anyone was curious, I was wondering at first if the recording could be a Townsend's Solitare. I know they're pretty rare in Orange, but I've seen a few reports come in recently. However, the notes are too far apart and the sonogram curves downwards instead of staying flat as in this recording. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/465362021

Not the best landscape but I love these little guys

Nice baby blue sky provided a nice background for this Palm Warbler… https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500452351

Lots of good photos today. Here’s a few. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500361641 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500361401 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500361331

Phoebe https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500241831

Pretty decent Downy Woodpecker and Song Sparrow. I was very lucky with the Woodpecker, I was observing some other birds when he cam to this seedpod and started eating; he did not mind me at all! https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500197761 https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/500197821