12 hours plus driving for a looks at a Pigeon's butt?

Yes, I made a pilgrimage of over 12 hours driving to see a pigeon yesterday.  The crazy thing is 3 others nuts (Greg M., Harry S. and Danny) came with me.  We started the day in thick fog at Mattamuskeet.  I got good looks at a bittern but the photo was horrible.  I have saved it in case I don't get a better one later.  Lots of ducks which allowed close looks due to poor visibility, however the lighting was horrible so I will not post any of those pictures.  Next we headed to Alligator to get Greg and Danny the continuing Ash-Throated Flycatcher at Milltail Rd.  It did not take long to find it and everyone got good looks and pics.
Just before lunch the fog cleared for good and we made it to our destination of a home in Manteo, NC where the Band-Tailed Pigeon has been located for over a week.  I was able to find it pretty quickly in the Live Oak tree in front of the house.  However, it offered poor looks due to its position in the tree.  We all managed decent shots of the pigeon's butt, and some diagnostics shots of the bicolored bill, red eye, greenish nape and white band across the back of the neck.  It looked like it was content to stay like that all day so we did not waste much time waiting for it to move.

                                           Bicolored orange/black bill, red eye.

                     Greenish ruffled nape patch with white band above.

                     Also visible is the bands on tail.

Since we were up there, we decided to make a couple more stops.  In Wanchese a nice Glaucous Gull was being reported.  So we tried our luck but were not able to find it.  However, there were plenty of more common gulls and so I snapped a few pics good enough for my year effort.

   Greater Black-backed Gull.  Note pink legs which is an easy way to differentiate from the Lesser Black-backed.  Also, it is pretty much the largest North American gull.

Herring Gull.  Not much smaller than the Black-backed and way bigger than the Ring-Billed.

On the way back home we stopped back at Milltail Rd. in Alligator to try for the Short-Eared Owls and perhaps a Woodcock.  Well we bagged both although the looks were not great due to increasing dark.  The owls took the field after 5pm and replaced the many Harriers.  It was easy to pick them out by their moth like flight and lighter colored wings.  I managed an extremely poor pic that is not even diagnostic so I will not be using it.  The highlight for me was the woodcocks peenting in the field ahead of us which I could barely hear due to my poor ears and a couple looks at silhouetted woodcocks flying just in front of us with their erratic flight.  Of course, I was not able to get a pic.

Great times.