Visiting Wild America: Small world?

I woke up Wednesday morning to partly sunny/partly cloudy skies. But lots of wind. I had camped at Hayes Lake state park for the night, and fell asleep to the wind howling. I left camp around 715, driving another 40 miles south to Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. This huge complex is an island in a sea of agricultural land in northern Minnesota. It consists mainly of marshes, created by man made impoundments that are regulated to control water levels at different times of the year. Today I started to get a bit of western feel for the bird life, discovering in my 4 hours or so around the refuge 3 new birds that I had never seen before, plus a few others that I have only seen occasionally. The new birds were Western Grebe, Clay-colored Sparrow, and Franklin's Gulls. The Franklin's Gulls supposedly nest in a colony of over 40,000 birds, but this colony must be someplace inaccessible on the refuge, as I only saw a handful of the birds. Still they are quite pretty. The best part was that, like many of the places I've visited throughout this trip, I had the area to myself. Except for park personnel, there was nobody around. Except for one lady who met me on one of the viewing platforms. She was older, maybe 65. We got to talking, about birds of course. When I ask her what she's doing here, she said she's on a trip across country too to see birds (see im not the only one). I asked her where she's from originally. She says, "Pennsylvania". No way! One person in the entire refuge in Northern Minnesota, and she's from my state. Just north of Phili she said. And what's even wierder, she went to SUNY Cortland, our biggest rival at Ithaca. We had quite a nice chat, while birding at the same time. She's seen over 650 bird species in North America, way more than me. We eventually parted ways, and I finished off my birding of the refuge.

Mom and dad with kids (Canada Geese)

Clay-colored Sparrow. The first time I have ever seen this species and they were everywhere

View of the marshland from platform at Agassiz NWR

After cleaning up back at the camp, I headed north to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Border patrol again checked out my car, making me pop the trunk to inspect my bear spray to make sure that I wasnt covering up for some other type of spray weapon. The man looked at it approvingly and sent me on my way. Beautiful weather driving into Winnipeg. I got in around 7:30, and decided to go directly to the Oak Hammock Wildlife Management area, north of the city. What an awesome piece of land. There's a huge visitor center, and miles of dikes to walk on and view all the marsh birds. There had been a rare bird, a Red Phalarope (a kind of shorebird) seen at the park 5 minutes before I arrived. Of course I missed seeing it, but still enjoyed the other wildlife. Croaking Yellow-headed Blackbirds, families of Canada Geese, stunning Red-necked Grebes, and tons of frogs croaking everywhere. All the people I saw were very friendly as well, telling me what I might see while at the refuge, and asking me how my trip was going so far. I guess I myself can become somewhat chatty when I'm on the road by myself for long stretches of time. I blame that attribute on my mom. I stayed until the sun set, then made my way to Bird Hill Provincial Park, arrived around 1030, set up the tent, journaled, and passed out. It was a clear night as I fell asleep, and I heard a welcoming Whippoorwill calling in the distance. It was a great day to be outside.