Today was a really good day. Obsidian and I headed out to the Reservoir before we left town. When we arrived, we headed down to where the long-billed Dowitchers have been hanging about. As we approached the little mud flat the ducks and the dowitchers flew off. I hung around for a couple more minutes throwing the ball for Obi and I realized there were six or seven other small shorebirds. I took some pictures and decided that they might be pectoral sandpipers but I figured I’d wait until I got home to confirm or deny that idea. The reservoir was alive with gulls, Canada geese, ducks, hooded mergansers, western grebes, common goldeneyes, loons, starlings, and coots. I also found several groups of American tree sparrow’s over the course of the day.
Then we headed to Bozeman.
We stopped at Headwaters State Park and saw a Townsend’s Solitaire and a moose. I’ve never been this close to a moose in the wild. Fortunately I was at the top of a cliff and she was down below. Otherwise I would have been fearing for both Obi’s and my safety. She was bedded down in the tall grass along the river. I was about 50 feet above her. She stared at me quite intently and didn’t seem to be particularly bothered. I also stopped to see pictograph because it’s so wonderful to see rock art in Montana. Headwaters is a nice place to take a 30 minute walkabout and sped some time in nature.
On the way home from Bozeman, after having a wonderful lunch with Meghan and fixing the side view mirror on the 4runner, I was just a bit north of Townsend near the bridge that crosses the Missouri River when about 500 sheep were herded out onto the highway. They used the bridge to cross from the south to the north side of the Missouri River. It stopped 50+ cars in both directions. It was quite a sight to see.
After dinner, I examined the pictures that were taken earlier in the day and decided that they must be pectoral sandpipers. Knowing Erin he had never seen this species, I took her out to the Reservoir just before sunset so that she could add pectoral sandpipers to her life list.
All told, I had 29 species of birds, one of which was a lifer, and I saw a moose. Not a bad day at all.
Nature, every day. 
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