Greetings All: Rich Kostecke, it turns out, was actually ahead of me at the end of October. Something about the system he is using to keep track of things led him to omit Cactus Wren and Verdin - found long ago - from his list and I was unaware of his Halloween addition of Red-breasted Merganser. So, at the end of October the score was 288 for Rich in his Austin-centered region and 286 for Fat Tony in his Lubbock-centered region. November was good for both of us but better for me. I added (in order of appearance) Greater Scaup, Pine Warbler, Western Grebe, Horned Grebe, Bald Eagle, Common Crane, Cassin's Finch, Red Crossbill, Herring Gull, and Lewis's Woodpecker to my regional list for the year, bringing me to 296 - very close to my goal of 300 for 2014. Rich added (in order of appearance) Virginia Rail, Curve-billed Thrasher, Western Grebe, McCown's Longspur, Zone-tailed Hawk, and Palm Warbler to his regional list, bringing him to 294. Looking at our lists, Rich still has a couple of fairly easy (in most years) species to add to his region - somebody, please pin down a Red-breasted Nuthatch and/or Pine Siskin for him. I, on the other hand - with the exception of a reasonable expectation for Short-eared Owl, am going to have to hope for more weirdness. Fortunately, there seems to be a lot of weirdness about this season and, while I still expect Rich to pull out a victory, my region can't be written off just yet - see temporary nickname below (all casuals/accidentals for which my region has multiple December records) Anthony 'looking for Tundra Swan, Brant, Eurasian Wigeon, Long-tailed Duck, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Pacific Loon, Clark's Grebe, Brown Pelican, Black Rail, American Woodcock, California Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Greater Kiskadee, Northern Shrike, Steller's Jay, Carolina Chickadee, Sedge Wren, Varied Thrush, Sprague's Pipit, Eastern Towhee, American Tree Sparrow, Sage Sparrow, Le Conte's Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and/or Purple Finch ' Hewetson; Lubbock Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner