[mou] a great birding weekend

[Steve and Sherry Watson]

	Hello All,

		I was down in Duluth this last weekend in hopes I'd pay
off with some great birds which it did so.  I was down the 23rd but not
for birding.  I birded with just my dad on the 24th along Park Point and
Morgan Park.  I found a couple swainson's thrush's and one grey-cheeked
at Morgan Park along with a couple warblers including; ovenbird, pine,
Tennessee, redstart, magnolia, palm, yellow-rumped, black & white, and
Nashville.  We also had great views at a blue-headed vireo.  Park Point
didn't reveal much but two fly over black-bellied plovers and one
golden.  The 25th I birded on Kim Eckert's free MBW.  We found a
cackling goose at the mouth of the Knife River which we saw and heard
very well.  We also saw and heard a boreal chickadee their very well and
Jim Lind and I saw a beautiful Le Conte's sparrow which was fun.
Yellow-bellied sapsuckers were really impressive and seemed to be on the
move, I saw about two or three dozen the whole day and several others
saw many as well.  Sharp-shinned hawks and kestrels were also on the
move.  A couple Harris's sparrows at Stony Point was about the only
other really fun bird for the day other wise it was pretty quiet.  The
day ended looking for false kittiwakes and sooty terns at Wisconsin
point with John Hockema, Brother Chris {Hockema} uncle Bob {Dunlap},
Carol Schumacher, and Ben Fritchmen.  We didn't see anything but a
couple Bonaparte's gulls and that was about it.  Today the 26th I took
up birding with John, Chris, Carol, Bob, Tom Auer, Mike Hendrickson,
Jeff Stephenson, Chuck Krules, Dave Bartkey, and my dad.  We started
early and spent the whole day at Wisconsin point arriving at 8:00 A.M.
Most of us walked out to the light house for better viewing in hopes of
a few things to make up for a pretty disappointing day yesterday.  Kim's
trip I had abandon to hang out with John a bit and I sure would have
regretted it if I would have stayed with Kim.  Not long after we arrived
Uncle Bob spied a juvenile Sabine's gull just beyond the Minnesota break
wall.  I put my Swarovski scope up and got on a small gull which I
thought to be the Sabine's but when it banked I saw a very patterned
dark M on the back and instantly knew it was a juvenile little gull.  I
soon got both gulls in my field of view at the same time and watched
them slowly fade off in the distance.  Not long after that showed up
again in the same area not very far off.  I got spectacular views of
both birds where I could see both gulls field marks perfect in the scope
at the same time.  It was amazing.  We watched them for a good long time
at a pretty close range as they swooped and glided banking back and
forth over the Minnesota break wall and eventually vanishing in
Wisconsin.  Kim's group who was hiking Minnesota point didn't see either
of the beautiful gulls and I felt bad.  Right after they disappeared a
short-eared owl shows up flying from out in the middle of Lake Superior
right at Park Point allowing for my best ever view of one of the birds.
It was spectacular and now I really felt bad as Kim and his group missed
out on that as well.  Less than twenty minutes apart I added two life
birds and three total year birds but that didn't last when I and some of
the others saw a nice look at a light adult Parasitic Jaeger adding a
third life bird and fourth year bird for the day.  I was so exhilarated
at this point I don't know how I contained my excitement but I was about
boiling over.  It was around 10:30 A.M. by this time and we were running
out of new things to see.  But still the day had one more and awesome
surprise.  While scanning tons of C. terns our group spied and had great
looks at an artic tern which ranged from a half mile out to less then
one hundred yards.  We probably watched it for about half an hour or so
and were able to see all of the major field marks.  It was a great way
to end the day and the weekend.  I added four lifers and five year birds
which was pretty spectacular and made up for the loss yesterday.  I was
still happy I had switched from Kim's group though as I would have
missed out on all that good stuff.  Kim's trip was great though but
hanging with my best birding buddy John seeing all these great birds,
and actually all I saw very WELL.  It was a great weekend.  Good birding
to all,

Josh Watson
Grand Marais             

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