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 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.768 / Virus Database: 515 - Release Date: 9/22/04