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To those of you.

 …who credit and compliment my birding skills for finding the eastern screech owl in the drain hole, I just want to say “Thank you.”, and “Sometimes skill happens.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t skill that happened on this occasion though.  We have to allow for “right place at the right time”, knowing who to ask, and occasionally, dumb luck.  After walking past that spot five times that day, someone asked me if I’d seen the eastern screech owl and pointed it out to me.   But I’m sure, sometimes, skill happens…  
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Can you find the .

 …Eastern Screech Owl in this picture? Hint:  You can’t.  It’s too small to see in this photo, but this is where he is.  But zoom in a little… …and a little more… …and there he is!  …a fine looking little guy. 
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Hiding in plain sight

 January 1st.  Donna Reservoir.  We’re looking for two special birds.  We found the Long-tailed Duck and took a bunch of pictures.  Once we were done with that, we started looking for the Surf Scoter, but he was nowhere to be found.  We looked at every Scaup.  There were hundreds to sort through.  There were a few Shovelers and Canvasbacks, but mostly Scaup.  No luck. We didn’t really need the Surf Scoter.  Getting the Long-tailed Duck was enough reward for one day’s effort.  We went on our way.  We birded some more at other places.  We went home.  We had dinner.  I wrote the trip report.  I sent out pictures of the Long-tailed Duck. I got a phone call from Jon.  He said “Did you see that duck right behind your Long-tailed Duck?”  I told him not to get excited.  The duck in the background had caught my eye before I sent out the pictures.  I had zoomed in a little and saw that it was a Scaup with its head turned, right in front of a Canvasback.  Jon suggested I look again.  The duck behind the duck behind the Long-tailed Duck in the middle of the picture?  That’s not a Canvasback.  That’s the Surf Scoter we couldn’t find! See the orange bill?  That’s him.  Hiding in plain sight! This birding can be really hard (and occasionally embarrassing).