300!!!

I stayed home from work today to bake a cake for a coworker's birthday, so I've had plenty of time to glance out to the back yard while baking. I saw a bird sitting in my bowl of water, flicking redish wings. Hmm, those looked like female cardinal wings, but that wasn't a cardinal head. It took me a second or two to realize I was seeing a NEW BIRD!

I observed decurved bill, black eye, white below, gray above, rather larger bird. It played in the water, and stayed only about 1 minute--no time for a decent photo, so I've stolen these from the internet:


I got a good, but brief look at the tail and knew it must be a cuckoo, and sure enough, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo lives here in the summer.

I immediately logged it into my Birdstack account which informed me my life list was up to 300! Yay!