ABILENE (AP) -- Chet Gresham's year has gone to the birds -- just like he wanted it to.
Gresham, who acknowledges that he is ''obsessed'' with bird-watching, has spent all of 2000 traveling across the state to see as many different species of birds as he could.
His tally as of last week was 357, which easily beats the state record of 339 recorded by Mike Rader of Russell in 1998. His tally isn't far from the 450 bird species ever documented in Kansas.
To end the year, Gresham, 25, missed a New Year's Eve party in Wichita and drove to a windswept grove of Southwest Kansas trees.
Fifteen miles from the nearest house and a few yards from a barbed-wire fence that marks the Colorado state line, Gresham planned to have a spotlight in one hand and binoculars in the other.
''Everyone has their obsession,'' said Gresham. ''Just not everyone takes it to extremes like myself.''
Gresham's fascination with birds grew from childhood days when he scattered bread crumbs about his family's yard in Wichita.
As he grew, so did his involvement in birding, though time spent completing an English degree at Wichita State University cut into his time afield.
After graduation, Gresham decided to take some time before settling into a career or continuing his studies.
First he took a part-time job doing bird surveys in the Olympic Mountains of Washington. Then he decided to dedicate this year to a personal project closer to home.
''I just got to thinking how much fun it would be to go all out in my home state,'' Gresham said. ''I decided to try to get a really large list for the year.''
Gresham began his quest last New Year's Day in Barber County. He has spent all or parts of an estimated 350 days afield since.
Working part-time at his parents' greyhound farm near Abilene, Gresham has funneled most of his income into the project.
The state's diversity, which ranges from woods in the east to semi-arid areas in the west, has kept Gresham on the go.
His ''dirt-colored'' 1998 Saturn has logged nearly 40,000 miles on highways, backroads and rutted trails, taking him to birding destinations in all corners of the state.
Some birding hot spots have been hit repeatedly.
''It's exactly an hour and 15 minutes from my house to Quivira (National Wildlife Refuge),'' Gresham said. ''I'd say I went there 40 times, a lot of times after working a half-day.''
He made the nine-hour round-trip to Morton County's Cimarron National Grasslands eight times. Gresham said the repeat trips were needed to take advantage of spring, fall and winter migrations.
He estimates he found nearly 250 species on birding jaunts in Sedgwick County.
As luck would have it, 2000 offered a number of unusual sightings for Gresham to chase.
''I probably couldn't have picked a better year for something like this,'' Gresham said.
''Because of the real dry weather in the Rockies, the seed crop was bad, and we had a lot of Western birds showing up in Western Kansas. It seemed like every rare bird I needed to see to get my list up showed up this year.''
Many times Gresham traveled several hours on short notice just to see a bird for a few minutes, then headed back to Wichita. Many trips were made after a rare species was reported online by other Kansas birders.
Along with his girlfriend, Maggie Faircloth, Gresham made a midsummer whirlwind trip to Garden City to spot a wood stork, a species normally found along the Gulf Coast.
While he often birded with friends, Gresham spent quite a bit of time alone. Still, he said no one in the birding world questions his listings.
''Mostly all of the birds that were rare were at least seen by other people,'' Gresham said. ''I also tried to video a lot. I'd count a species even if I didn't get it videoed, if I was absolutely certain what it was.''
Even after dark on New Year's Eve, Gresham planned to visit a cluster of trees, as far west in Kansas as he could get to spot owls.
, and play the recorded sounds of a Western screech owl.
He hoped the calls will lure in an owl and he would have yet another species to add to a list gathered in a year he says he'll never forget.
''Some people take off a year and hike through Europe after they finish school,'' Gresham said. ''I decided I'd do this. I'll probably never get a chance to do something like this again.''
