[mou] Koochiching Ross's Goose

[Hagsela@aol.com]

I was surprised to find a single juvenile Ross's Goose in a farm field at the 
northwest corner of Hwy 1 and Koochiching Cty 14/81 intersection.  The goose 
was about .2 mile west of that intersection on Hwy 1.  It matched point for 
point the picture of the white juvenile Ross's on page 78 of Sibley's.  We 
observed it with binoculars and scope for 20 minutes from about 8:30 a.m. the 
morning of September 8.  The only companions it had were sparrows and one brightly 
colored meadowlark.  The majority of the sparrows were Savannah and a few 
Vesper.
On the 7th we found at least one Three-toed Woodpecker at the spot 2.3 miles 
south of Hwy 1 on Cty 13.  What a thrill!!  We only saw one individual at a 
time on 3 occasions.  We saw a male each time.  We observed the woodpecker from 
4:30-4:40 the afternoon of the 7th.  We also encountered a few warblers - 
Blackburnian and Black-throated Green being the most numerous, along with Common 
Yellowthroats.  Boreal Chickadees were hard to coax, but we finally saw a small 
flock on the 8th.  The only Black-billed Magpie we saw was in International 
Falls.

How could I forget those harbingers of winter?  We also saw a Dark-eyed Junco 
and White-throated Sparrows.  All the sitings were on Cty. 13.

Good birding!
Linda Sparling
Hennepin County