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Administrator’s note: This is the first blog post slated for the new BirderBlog, scheduled to launch soon. If you’ve ever been birding, you’ll appreciate authors Penny Rose and Scott Hoskins’s expertise. Even if you’re new to birding, Penny and Scott are known for getting first-timers hooked on this rewarding pastime.

The Big Sit- October, 2009

The Big Sit is a very simple yet intriguing event sponsored each October by Birder’s Digest. Your team chooses a 17 foot circle to count species for any length of time during a 24 hour period. Simple right!?

List of absolute necessities for a successful Big Sit:

• The 17 ft circle – the PERFECT circle
• Chairs – very comfortable chairs
• Snacks – lots and lots of snacks
• Warm clothes – lots and lots of warm clothes
• Tide Chart – read it accurately- your return home depends on it
• Binoculars – clean
• Spotting scope – one for EVERY member of the team
• Patience – lots and lots of patience

Our team consisted of Scott Hoskin and myself; the site, Discovery Park. As I work in this park our circle had to be out of the public arena. Scott recognized I would have wasted precious birding time providing compliance and interpretive moments for every passerby. The solution – a tucked away pocket beach accessible at low tide in the wee hours of the morning with no escape (or entrance) at high tide during the public hours.

We slogged a mile and half through the seaweed during the pre-dawn hours, toting chairs, scopes, thermoses, and all the essentials for a good day. Settled into to the circle we awaited the first birds. The early morning was maddening with tremendous birding activity: migrating flocks of Band-tailed Pigeons, Song Sparrows galore, several species of gulls to sort through. The stress of missing even one species was exhausting. How could birding be so tiring!?

Yet the rewards were countless. A Hermit Thrush graced us with her presence, feeding along the edge of the forested cliff at our backs and occasionally bobbing amongst the driftwood, close enough to touch. We captured views of Red-throated Loons flying over Puget Sound, their heads seemingly too heavy to hold up. Mid-morning the Belted Kingfisher who had been rattling at us repeatedly, flew to a nearby cliff and began excavating a nest hole. We were fascinated with its woodpecker tail balancing act for over ½ an hour till we realized – Arghh we need more species!

The Law of Diminishing Returns. The more species you see the less you will see. So scan and scope, scan and scope. Soon we picked out a Black Scoter to add to our White-winged and Surf Scoters, Horned Grebes to add to the Red-necked Grebes. A Red-tailed Hawk floated past, oblivious to the angry Kingfisher’s calls. Later a Cooper’s Hawk and Bald Eagle bumped up the raptor list.

And so the day went. The late afternoon lull was spent snacking and focusing on the tide line. Would it really get low enough for us to hike back around the bluff from our little pocket beach? You can’t change the tide, so back to scanning Puget Sound. Low and behold is that a blow from a whale!? The next hour was spent in high excitement watching a super pod of Orca frolic together. Huge dorsal fins identified the adult whales and tiny, tiny dorsal fins spread the good word that young Orca are in the Sound. Spy hopping, tail lobbing, fin splashing. Joyous greetings of three separate Orca pods coming together. We could feel their welcome from our perfect birding circle.

The tide out and our way clear, it was time to call it a day. Just one more scan before leaving rewarded us with a single Western Grebe and the first Bufflehead of the fall, bringing our count to 42 species. As we slipped and slogged back through the seaweed in the gathering dusk, reminiscing about our favorite birds and potential treats to pack next year, I nearly stepped on a Pectoral Sandpiper. Truly a marvelous reward for a very Big Sit.