[mou] birding with the hockema brothers!

[Steve and Sherry Watson]

Hello All,
Just this last week I went down to bird southern Minnesota with the
Hockema brother's! I have never birded that part of the state before and
I'm trying to see my 300th bird for the state before I turn sixteen,
before I went down I had 278.  I went down on Thursday (the 10th) and
met up with John in the afternoon.  We birded Fillmore County together
and enjoyed several common but fun birds, also birds I have seen before
but scarcely.  I was able to hear several orchard orioles which were
life birds but they made sure I was to never see them.  We also found a
pair of Henslow's sparrows at Beaver Creek Wildlife Management area
which were also a life bird.  We also saw a swainson's hawk at a spot
John new about which was a year bird for myself and we even discovered a
yellow-headed blackbird and an unexpected location which I seem to have
forgotten the name of.  Friday (the 11th) we had planned to go up and
bird the Twin Cities area like Murphy Hanrehan and then go up for the
Chat at Sherburne national wildlife refuge... but plans changed the
night before when we caught news of the painted bunting over near
Marshall in Lyon County.  So Friday we cruised on over to where the
bunting had been seen.  I was able to finally see my orchard oriole at
one of their feeders while waiting for the bunting.  After about 45
minutes the bunting showed up to chow on their thistle feeder.  We got
excellent views from about 5ft through their living room window, it was
unbelievable.  Even if we wouldn't have seen it, it would have been fun
as the people had a really neat and awesome set up with feeders, gardens
a pond with a small building and screen porch overlooking it, and we saw
several other great, common birds their.  After spending time their and
seeing the bunting and such John began calling people for a decently
reliable least bittern spot as he had 299 for the year now and wanted to
reach 300.  He got news of a pretty good spot called Black Rush Lake
wildlife management area.  When we reached the spot not to far from the
bunting our mouth's dropped at what looked to be the best and one of the
most extensive, beautiful marsh's we'd ever seen.  Immediately after
stepping out of the car we got to hear one and then with my expertise
clapping the bird flushed from the marsh and we all (as Linda Sparling
was also with us) got great views of the bird as it swung over the marsh
and disappeared back in the dense cattails.  Also at that location which
we all new to be pretty, well, very rare was a pair of Ross's Geese
swimming on a large body of water across from the thick cattail marsh
hanging with several Canada geese pairs and their goslings.  I also
found a willow flycatcher that the other two missed over the celebration
of Johns 300th bird.  From their we started back tracking to Rochester
and stopped to try and see the common moorhens as it would be a life
bird for me.  However we (well John and I) struck out on it but lucky
old (young, medium...whatever) Linda caught a glimpse of the bird in the
cattails while John and I busily weren't paying attention on the phone.
For at least and hour we waited for it to show itself but it never
did... Darn...Oh Well some other day I'll get it.  Then Linda and I
split up from John to detour for a life bird Kentucky warbler for both
of us at Williams State park.  We got the bird and had excellent but
brief views of the bird.  I also added a life bird Blue-winged warbler
their which put the icing on the cake for the day.  I added six lifers,
painted bunting, least bittern, Ross's goose, willow flycatcher,
Kentucky warbler, and blue-winged warbler.  Saturday (the 12th) John led
his birding thing at Cabbage Rocks in Fillmore County.  It was great, we
saw and heard several great and fun birds and I got three lifers,
yellow-throated vireo-great views and I even spied it, Acadian
flycatcher-got to see it really well and year it, and then Louisiana
waterthrush-I was able to see it but never heard the bird, in-fact their
was a pair of them along the stream.  We then ate lunch at Nancy
Overcott's and while there I got to see my first ever tufted titmouse as
earlier in the year I heard one.  From there I birded the rest of the
afternoon with Chris and a little with Dedrick Benz.  Dedrick took us to
Great River Bluff's state park where I added a life bird Bell's Vireo
heard only.  The funny thing about that bird was how Dedrick described
the song which someone else had told him "where'd that little shit go
what that little shit would do".  Anyway we thought that was funny, and
if you really listen hard it actually sounds pretty close to that.
Dedrick then took us up to another park (I forget the name but its in
Winona) and we got to see and hear a prothonotary warbler which was yet
another life bird.  From their Dedrick split up with us and we sped on
up to John Latch (is it state park) and Chris and I got unbelievable
views of a singing male Cerulean Warbler up close and not way high in
the treetops and on top of that I discovered a female with him which was
cool.  After a while their we ended the day with lark sparrow at a place
I cant seem to remember but we had wonderful views of a few birds and
even one singing.  Sunday (the 13th) Today the Hockema brothers, Linda
Sparling and Bob Dunlap met up at Murphy Hanrehan and got to hear the
summer tanager and see it fly by but never any better views.  Despite
not seeing it well it was still a life bird and a great experience.  We
didn't hear any hooded warblers which, thankfully would have only been a
year bird but we did flush a barred owl.  We then took a different trail
looking for yellow-billed cuckoo but didn't find any.  We did see a
green heron (I know its pretty common) and got to hear the unusual alder
flycatcher which was pretty cool even though I get them crawling out of
my ears in my neck of the woods.  Bob split up with us and we sped up to
Sherburne national wildlife refuge and spent a great deal of time
searching for the yellow-breasted chat...but in the end we succeeded in
an unbelievable view of the singing bird from an open perch out in the
scrub.  That pretty much ended the trip.  I saw several birds I rarely
get to witness as well as lots of year birds which boosted my year list
to 266 and last but not least I added 17 life birds over the weekend and
I now lay at 295 for my state list.  It was a great time and I have to
thank the Hockema brothers for most of it.  We had many funny moments
along the way such as when John split up with Linda and I at burger king
to go fill his car with gas right after the painted bunting we got a
call in the middle of eating that told us to come as soon as possible.
Well we did to find that John had forgotten his wallet.  That wasn't so
bad after Linda backed into the ditch at black rush lake and John and I
had to push her out.  But probably the funniest thing was birding with
Bob Dunlap looking for yellow-billed cuckoos when the word FITTY came up
and I didn't seem to understand it though everyone else did but even
after I asked Uncle Bob I still couldn't quite get it.  Oh well! It was
a great trip.  Good birding to all and this is to John Hockema
"FITTY"!

Josh Watson 
Grand Marais                                 

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