Halfway to 200!

This has been a great weekend for yard birds for me. First, there was a Ring-necked Pheasant in the yard yesterday. This bird set a new personal best in yard lists for me, surpassing my old record from Olympia of 41 species with the pheasant being number 42. Then this morning, Stephanie and I saw a Brown Creeper in the yard, a bird that is generally considered to be common but hard to find. Finally, this afternoon I added yard bird number 44, and at the same time my 100th species of the year, a flock of at least four Lesser Goldfinches! That's a male reaching out to defend its spot on the feeder from a Pine Siskin in the photo above. The other two birds on the feeder are also Lesser Goldfinches. This species is considered "occassional" in Cache County, meaning that is seen periodically but not even once a year. What a great way to reach the halfway mark! (If this is listed as 98 in my species list, how can I be halfway to 200? Because I still have two spuhs that are not yet included in the list: see the post from January 29.)