The 2006 WOS Conference in Republic was fantastic! We led two field trips
plus one owling trip, and camped at Lost Lake from Friday evening through
Sunday morning in between the trips. As others have already gone over the
conference, I'll just mention a few of my personal highlights from my first
conference:

Running across a female BLUE GROUSE on the road with 7 chicks just NW of
Chesaw, seeing baby COMMON GOLDENEYE and HOODED MERGANSERS, 17 species of
waterfowl in one day, seeing both VIRGINIA RAIL and SORA at very close range
along Mary Ann Creek Rd, having several WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKERS at the Lost
Lake Campground, along with 2 HAIRY WOODPECKER nests, finding a CEDAR
WAXWINGS nest, having GRAY JAYS come down in our campsite for peanuts,
seeing a GREAT GRAY OWL, a LONG-EARED OWL and a GREAT HORNED OWL and hearing
FLAMMULATED, BARRED, and N PYGMY all in the same night, getting 3 hours of
sleep that night before leading a field trip, having a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH
dive at us, getting a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT in northern Stevens County,
seeing both a flyover MERLIN north of Curlew and the nesting bird at Kettle
Falls, seeing 2 BLACK BEARS on separate days on Togo Mountain and lots of
SNOWSHOE HARES in several places, having a male THREE-TOED WOODPECKER stare
at us from its nest hole found by Gina Sheridan near Sherman Pass, hearing
and seeing what might be a hybrid WILLOW X ALDER FLYCATCHER at the Beaver
Lake Campground, and then seeing a genuine lifer ALDER FLYCATCHER found by
the Sullivans near Muskrat Lake to end our trip. What can I say? It was
FANTASTIC!!! To add to all of this was the startingly beautiful landscape
that makes Okanogan, Ferry, and Stevens Counties so wonderful. And
near-perfect weather!

I've posted 36 photos from the trip on my website, including 5 pictures of
the ALDER FLYCATCHER, viewable at
www.flickr.com/photos/nightjar.
Click on "WOS Conference 2006".

I sure hope everyone else found the conference to be as much fun as I did!

Good birding!!

Michael Woodruff
Spokane, WA
www.flickr.com/photos/nightjar

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