Sitting Out

Back in the day, we called them Century Runs or Century Days and we'd try to see 100 or more bird species during the daylight hours. Today they are called Big Days. The concept has even been modified into a competitive sport with the creation of events such as the World Series of Birding in New Jersey (which just celebrated its 20th year), The Great Texas Birding Classic, and The Taverner Cup competition held in Canada. Today's top Big Day teams are shooting for 200-plus species in a 24-hour period.

I've participated in several birding competitions and done more than 25 Big Days, and I really love them. But there's a new love in my birding life—The Big Sit! What's a Big Sit? Well, it's a stationary bird watching adventure that's as exciting as it is sedentary. Some people have called it a “tailgate party for birders.” Opinions vary as to the origin of the term Big Sit!, but we know that the modern version was created by the New Haven (Connecticut) Bird Club (NHBC). NHBC members held the first Big Sit! in 1993 in Connecticut. Today there are Big Sit! circles all over the world, including South Africa, Spain, the Netherlands, England, and Peru.

Simple, yet unique

The simplicity of the concept makes The Big Sit! so appealing. Find a good spot for bird watching—preferably one with good views of a variety of habitats and lots of birds. Next you create a real or imaginary circle 17 feet in diameter and sit inside the circle for 24 hours, counting all the bird species you see or hear. That's it. Find a spot, sit in it, have fun.

I still love the challenge of competitive birding over a large geographic area for 24 hours (as in the World Series of Birding, or for several days (as in the Great Texas Birding Classic). But there's an intrinsic appeal to staying in one spot and putting maximum effort into finding what's there or what's passing overhead. There's no shadow of guilt about burning fossil fuels (unless you count the barbecue grill). There's not even any heated competition—Big Sitters are a friendly bunch. And that's one of the things I like best about The Big Sit—it's an excuse to sit around with some friends just watching whatever birds are around and shooting the breeze.

But there's also a challenge to doing a Big Sit! Spending 24 hours (or as many as you can stand) bird watching from inside a 17-foot diameter circle really sharpens your senses and skills. Your eyes get used to scanning the horizon and the sky overhead. Your ears are attuned to the smallest chip or snippet of bird song. Cool birds are flying over and past us all the time, yet we rarely take the time to fully absorb them. Every Sit I've done has produced something remarkable: a rarely seen bird, a late or early migrant, a huge flock passing quietly overhead. If not for The Big Sit! I would not have seen the five black-crowned night-herons that flew past our birding tower last October 13 at dusk. It was a new bird for our property list and helped us set a new personal Sit record for species at 62.

Big Days and Big Sits

Although the official Big Sit! is held each year on the second Sunday in October, Big Sits! are starting to pop up all over. In April of this year I captained a team (The BWD Couchless Kingbirds) in The Great Texas Birding Classic's Big Sit! division. For our Sit circle we carefully selected a site on the dike road next to the irrigation canal along the boundary of Bentsen State Park in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The spot had a variety of habitats, nearby water (crucial for birds in this arid environment), and lots of open sky for spotting flyover species such as hawks, shorebirds, and waterfowl. A large smashed cane toad (Bufo marinus) in the road seemed like a good omen to us, so we used this unfortunate amphibian to mark the spot for our return after dark. Arriving at midnight we got our first Big Sit! species—several calling paraques. Twenty-one hours later we left the circle with a total of 92 species.

As I write this, I am preparing excitedly to do a Big Sit! at the World Series of Birding. The results from our past Texas and New Jersey Big Sits! are posted on the BWD website.

Fewer Birds, More Fun

The Big Sit! will never compete with a Big Day for total number of species, but there's a certain satisfaction in knowing you've wrung the maximum number of birds out of a small patch. Sitting in one place all day also gives you a good snapshot of migration. I know that the official Big Sit! weekend in October usually marks the end of warbler migration, at least in southeastern Ohio, and the arrival of our first winter visitors, including juncos, white-crowned sparrows, and golden-crowned kinglets.

A whole day of watching is also a good opportunity to see the daily rhythm of bird activity, including how an approaching change of weather can affect the birds. In 2000, my team and I watched the weather change from 80 degrees Fahrenheit to 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That morning a late scarlet tanager had been whisper singing in our plum hedge. That evening, with the sky full of snow, a lone male harrier coursed past the tower as we hunkered down under a sleeping bag. He was a pale vanguard of winter, hot on the heels of autumn's retreating rear guard.

How You Can Participate

Mark Sunday, October 10, 2004, on your calendar. That's the official date of the 11th annual Big Sit! There is no fee to participate, but you need to register your count circle prior to October 9, 2004. To register, or for more information, visit the Big Sit! web pages. You can also register by writing to The Big Sit, c/o BWD, P.O. Box 110, Marietta, OH 45750.

As you can see from the map of Big Sit! count circles, we still have some Sit!-free states and provinces. Why not conduct a Big Sit! in your area this October?

Big Sit! Sponsors and Fabulous Prizes

Bird Watcher's Digest became a Big Sit! host in 2001, along with the New Haven Bird Club. Along with our sponsors, we help underwrite the event's costs and spread the word about The Big Sit!

Swarovski Optik awards an annual Golden Bird prize of $500, which is earmarked for a conservation cause chosen by the winning team. After all the species are listed for The Big Sit! one species is chosen (drawn out of a hat) to be the Golden Bird. Then all the teams that saw that bird species are placed in a hat and the winning team is selected at random.

Happy Sitting!