Ash-throated Flycatcher

The images above were taken while on my trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico last June. This is another bird that had me confused.
The top image was taken while I was on the field trip with the local Audubon Society. I was told that it was an Ash-throated Flycatcher and I can now verify that by the brown coloring that wraps around the bottom of the underside of its tail.
The lower image was taken the day before at Rio Grande Nature Center State Park. I was only able to get a few shots from this angle and at the time I thought it might be a Brown-crested Flycatcher.
There are four Flycatchers that are very similar in coloration; the Ash-throated, the Brown-crested, the Great Crested and the Dusky-capped. All have gray heads, pale yellow bellies and rufous coloring on their primaries.
Though not certain, I believe the bird in the bottom image is also an Ash-throated Flycatcher. I base this on two things; the Ash-throated's range is strongest for Albuquerque and its throat is pale. The Ash-throated's throat is the palest of all four of the Flycatchers in question.

Cattle Egret

Earlier this month I past my first year posting to this blog. That was also the one year anniversary of my bird photography hobby. For the first few months I didn't even keep a list of the birds I saw; I always meant to, but I was having too much fun taking pictures.
Then I started reading OBOL which inspired me to start keeping track of what I saw. As the year passed, the number of birds I photographed continued to grow. I was also lucky enough to be able to take some time to bird during business trips in different parts of the country (and Canada) which helped add to the list.
Late last Autumn, as I was approaching 170 species, I set a goal to have photographed at least 200 species of birds by the end of my first year. I am happy to report that I exceeded that by 5! The only species that I saw, but didn't photograph was a Ring-necked Pheasant. I got a glimpse of a rooster at Jackson Bottom Wetland Preserve last Spring, but it darted into some heavy grass before I could get my camera to my eye. One of the reasons for only missing one bird is that until about December, I didn't even own a pair of binoculars. I just used my camera. Eventually I got frustrated with the reach of my 300mm lens and bought a pair at REI so I could ID distant birds. But, I still don't used them that much.
Anyway, I was thinking about this yesterday and recalled that there were a few birds that I had photographed on those business trips this past year that I wasn't able to ID. I thought maybe it would be interesting to post those birds and see if anyone had any ideas.
So I started looking through the thousands of pictures I've taken (luckily I have been pretty good about keeping them organized) and discovered an interesting thing. My identifying skills are improving (I also now have a Sibley field guide)!
I took the picture above during a business trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico last June. At the time I had no idea what it was. I looked through my field guide and online for white birds, but had no luck. But when I found this image last night and took another look, I thought it looked a lot like a Heron. Sure enough, I found that a Cattle Egret is white, has a reddish-yellow shorter bill, shorter orange legs during the breeding season, a shorter neck and is the smallest white Heron. The kicker is the yellowish-orange coloration on its breast; another breeding season feature.
So make that 206 species in my first year!