[mou] #300

[Steve and Sherry Watson]

	Hello all,
	I have been gone for a good three weeks and its good to be back
home after great success.  After seeing Bob Dunlap's post a week or two
ago you probably all know I achieved my goal of reaching number 300.
Both the Buff-breasted Sandpiper and the Red-necked Phalarope were life
birds and right at the moment I lie at 304.  A trip up north revealed a
three-toed woodpecker which was extremely exciting, especially after the
adult male alighted eye level within 10ft from John and I.  That weekend
with some of my favorite people to bird with was exceptionally good and
I would like to thank all those that were apart of one of my most
successful and fun birding adventures.  My trip to Missouri was hot,
though after chatting with several locals it was an un-normally cool
year and the same seemed to be for a few people we talked too from
Texas.  So I guess we are not the only ones experiencing cool or cooler
than usual weather.  I added three life birds in Missouri including
Carolina Wren, Bewick's Wren, and Carolina Chickadee.  I also saw a huge
number of Migrating Turkey vultures including a few Blacks which was
fun.  At one stop a pair of black Vultures was perched on a dead tree a
little higher than eye level and they allowed me to get pretty close for
a beautiful (I hope) photo.  The trip was fun and I got a lot of sun and
fill of shows.  By the way Linda I did go to the Jim Stafford show and
it was extremely funny, thanks for the recommendation, although I never
did get to that trail you told me about.  Well after two successful
weekends or weeks I added a third when I attended Kim Eckert's Northwest
MBW.  We had two day's of unbelievable warbler movement.  Between both
days we topped 19 warbler species including; Bay-breasted, Mourning,
Waterthrush, Wilson's, Tennessee, Ovenbird, Redstart, Yellow,
Chestnut-sided, Yellowthroat, Nashville, Cape May, Magnolia,
Yellow-rumped, Blackburnian, Palm, and Black & White Warblers.  The two
areas we had these are Springsteal Island in Roseau County and Lake
Bronson State Park in Kittson County.  Personally I think Springsteal
Island was a hair better and in-fact it was so outstanding it was even a
first for Kim.  At one point I looked up into one of the many trees
loaded with warblers and I had 15 Tennessee warblers in my field of view
at one time and that was the same at almost every tree I peered into.
It was amazing.  Another surprising bird for even Kim was the upland
sandpiper we had in a field somewhere in Roseau County, I can't quite
remember where.  Then somewhere along the Roseau/Kittson line (the road
ran right down the line so Roseau was on one side and Kittson County the
other).  I began pishhing in a field while Kim was trying to get his
Kids as he called them in line.   We were split into two groups so we
had to stop for a moment to get assorted over the radios.  After a
couple seconds the once dead field as it started out was ringing alive
with Le Conte's Sparrows and I even happened to pish in a life bird
Nelson's Sharp-tailed sparrow.  Although among both groups (which now
happened to be together) I was one of few who got to see the bird.
Despite several others who had wanted to see the bird I was happy and my
disappointment left after I'd missed one the day before.  It was funny
we probably wouldn't have bothered with the field and just left if I
hadn't gotten board waiting for a Kim to get a good signal over the
radio and decided to see what I could come up with.  I happened to also
see my best view of several Le Conte's Sparrows and (at this next part
Chris Hockema may not want to keep reading) right after the sharp-tailed
sparrow probably my fourth or fifth Olive-sided Flycatcher for the year
flew across the road adding it to both my county lists.  Sorry
Chris...good luck on one.  Ya, know you should have listened to me, I
told you several times I could get you one, but you had to be stubborn!
That trip was another birding success and I would like to thank both Kim
Eckert and Craig Mandel for all their efforts and hard work to make my
first MBW a very fun and great trip.  For the time being my state list
is at 304 and my year list 279.  Not bad for a fifteen year old.  Good
birding to all,

Josh Watson
Grand Marais                        

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