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BWD Does The Big Sit!

On Sunday, October 10, 2004 bird watchers from all over the world united in a fun day of watching the birds from the cozy confines of their Big Sit circles. BWD did the Big Sit at Editor Bill Thompson's farm in southeast Ohio. The team (sponsored by Bird Watcher's Digest and The Whipple Bird Club) scouted birds from the editor's three-story Indigo Hill Birding Tower. By 1 pm, they had spotted an impressive 58 species toward their all-time high of 62.

Says Bill Thompson, "We did it! We set a new Big Sit record with 65 species! Last bird spotted was a male black-throated blue warbler, my FAVORITE warbler species!

The Big Sit at The Great Texas Birding Classic

April 25-26, 2003

The Couchless Kingbirds arrived in the Lone Star State determined to make a good showing of their Big Sit prowess. And we did, finishing fifth among 13 teams entered in the GTBC's first Big Sit category. Our Big Sit circle was on the edge of Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park along the irrigation dike that runs perpendicular to the park's entrance. The reason for this was that Bentsen's wooded habitat and resaca, and it's well-deserved reputation as a raptor-watching hotspot, would produce the maximum variety of bird species.

Out team was composed of three non-Texans and one native Texan. I captained the team to our middle-of-the-pack finish. Our Texas native, Liz De Luna, helped us greatly with the logistics. Maximizing our bird identification skills was longtime Texas tour leader and BWD columnist Jeff Gordon. And adding his great birding skills and huge muscles to our squad was my fellow Ohioan Jim McCormac. I must add that we also selected Bentsen for its great variety of South Texas specialty birds'green jay, hooded oriole, chachalaca, and hook-billed kite'because these would be life birds for Jim. In fact, before and after the Texas Classic Big Sit we raced all over South Texas finding life birds for Jim. And we had great success, finding him 34 life birds!

We arrived in Harlingen, Texas the day prior to the start of the event and were greeted by our Texas hostess, Marci Fuller. Marci and her family had agreed (against the wishes of their close friend and attorney) to be the home base of the Couchless Kingbirds during The Big Sit. Certainly no other team competing in The Great Texas Birding Classic had any more royal treatment than we did. When we weren't relaxing in the Fullers' pool or enjoying the bird life around their San Benito home, we were being squired around by Marci's husband Terry, finding the special birds, plants, and butterflies of South Texas. Having a home base for this adventure made our experience so much more enjoyable.

But back to the actual Sit. After a stock-up trip to the supermarket we headed south to Bentsen at 11:30 pm. We arrived with just a few minutes to spare, jumped out of our two vehicles and began unloading equipment. At the stroke of midnight we tallied our first species, a paraque, or rather, about a dozen paraques that were calling all around us. We settled into our lawnchairs and tried to tune our ears to the sounds all around us, weeding out those that were not avian in origin. A barn owl drifted past, just visible against the dark of the park's treeline. A black-crowned night-heron squawked overhead.

An eastern screech-owl whinnied. We fought sleep. Ferruginous pygmy owl'a really good bird for Bentsen. We were on a roll, and we fought a pitched battle against sleep.

Staying up all night bird watching presents some challenges, challenges that no amount of coffee or sugar can conquer. I'm not sure if the entire Couchless Kingbirds team was ever asleep all at once, but we got pretty close a few times.

It got very buggy and very chilly late at night out on that dike. I started a small charcoal and briquette fire in our hibachi. The flames warmed us and our first several pots of coffee and the smoke may have dampened the enthusiasm of the mosquitoes and no-see-ums. Perhaps I should not use the term "pot" to describe our coffee. Jeff Gordon is a coffee connoisseur and travels with his own coffee blend and a French coffee press. As he made batch after batch of this nectar of alertness, we were in awe of his prowess with the press.

A bright spotlight cut through the darkness and froze us in our tracks. It was the Border Patrol looking for illegal aliens and drug smugglers. Nothing but a bunch of slightly insane bird watchers here on the Bentsen dike. The officer shook his head and wished us luck before he drove off into the night.

Before dawn cracked open its eyes the dawn chorus of bird song heralded its arrival. Robin, common yellowthroat, a long-billed thrasher, all the swallows, chachalaca, and dozens of other birds chimed in. But now we could use our eyes to their full capabilities instead of straining to see in darkness.

As the day grew warmer more and more species were sighted, including our first broad-winged hawks of the day and kites of three species. We had a hummingbird feeder and a birdbath with a dripper installed on the edge of the nearby woods, easily seen from our circle. Alas, no patrons at any of these offerings. Next year, we'll know to get them in place several days prior to the Sit so that the birds can find them. Bill Fintel of Avian Aquatics made our dripper especially for us. It was designed to fit into the bottom of any jug or bucket to provide a controlled slow drip of water into a bath. It was so alluring and we were so hot that we nearly took a dip in the birdbath ourselves.

In the heat of the afternoon sun, the bird activity slowed down and our bodies began to yearn for a siesta. One by one we took our turns at an afternoon snooze, making certain that someone was awake in the circle to look for new species. More coffee, more sugar, more munchies. A run to the Whataburger for dinner. More bug spray. A few false alarms (green kingfisher! No wait, it's a phoebe).

Dusk began to settle and we were thrilled to get a late run of new species. A handful of anhingas, a double crested cormorant, lesser goldfinch, and lesser nighthawk.

We packed it in just before 9 p.m. after debating whether or not we could add any more species to the list. We'd done really well on nocturnal birds the night before, so we saw little advantage in staying in the circle for the full 24 hours. Just then a car drove up to our circle and a young, tattooed Mexican American man leaned out the low-rider's window and asked us what we were doing out there. After hearing our explanation, he got more excited and told us about the tarantula they'd just found on the dike road a hundred yards or so away from our Big Sit circle. This was the final push we needed to make the decision to leave. Our species total for the day was 92. It was my personal best for any Big Sit. Just wait until next year!

Special Thanks from The Couchless Kingbirds to:

• The Great Texas Birding Classic, especially Shelly Scroggs, for seeing the wisdom in adding a Big Sit category.
• Marci, Terry, and Nicholas Fuller for the housepitality
• Liz Deluna for the loan of the coolers, camp stove, and futon!
• Bill Fintel of Avian Aquatics for the dripper
• Dave Scheiby for the rental car assistance
• Joe's Shrimp Shack for the incredible farm-raised shrimp
• Jim McCormac would like to thank Senor D. Sanchez for his special assistance.

The Couchless Kingbirds at The World Series of Birding

Cape May Point New Jersey, May 8-9, 2003

I found the trophy sitting on a windowsill in the BWD offices. It was covered in dust and a few cobwebs. Over the nameplate a sign was taped. "BWD Bowling Champion" it read. I removed it to read the original nameplate. "Winner, Cape Island Cup. "The Biggest Day" Cape Island Festival, May 16, 1983." It was the original trophy for the World Series of Birding. Wow.

In 1983, its first year, this event wasn't even called The World Series of Birding. It was called The Biggest Day. The team that BWD sponsored was called The Guerilla Birding Team and team members were Pete Dunne, Bill Boyle, Pete Bascinski, and the immortal Roger Tory Peterson. That team won the inaugural World Series, and BWD continued to sponsor teams for the first 10 years the event ran. Today's WSB is a much different affair. It is hugely competitive, with some teams scouting for birds for several weeks prior to the event, and huge amounts of money--being both spent and raised--for conservation. There are only a handful of teams that truly compete for the title'those that have the budget, the time, the focus, and the will to win.

It occurred to me that The Big Sit concept was perfect for The World Series. What better way to compete against teams that are racing all over New Jersey than by sitting on your behind for the entire 24 hours? So it was decided that The Couchless Kingbirds would field a team sponsored by Bird Watcher's Digest.

We picked Cape May Point State Park's hawkwatch platform as our count site and Big Sit circle. The team would be slightly different from The Great Texas Birding Classic. Jeff Gordon and I would once again anchor the team, with Grant Heckler, Chris Neri, and Ken Tew joining us.

I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down

I had an inauspicious start to our adventure. Coming out of a convenience store with coffee and a carton of half-and-half in my hands, I tripped over a parking curb and fell on my hands and face. Both of my palms got some embedded gravel and I was shaken up a bit and covered in coffee, but relatively unhurt. My teammates looked at me with a mixture of pity and mild scorn. Was this a bad omen?

We invaded the hawkwatch platform at 11:30 p.m. Each of us schlepped his stuff up the long ramp to the top level. It was a quite cool and damp evening. Little did we know, we would be cold and damp for much of the next 20 or so hours. As midnight arrived, we tallied our first species, a singing yellow-breasted chat. The rumble of the surf made it difficult for us to hear much in the way of night bird sounds. Many of the migrants passing overhead gave their flight calls, but we could only identify a few of them, including dickcissel, veery, and a singing Savannah sparrow. Jeff spotted a barn owl floating overhead at about 3 a.m., which got our adrenaline going. It also helped convince Jeff to get his coffee making gear out and going. A dense fog had settled around us in the early morning hours and we were cold, damp, and relatively birdless.

Foggy Breakdown

When daylight arrived we found ourselves in a pea-soup fog so thick that it obscured the Cape May Point lighthouse that loomed above us just 100 yards away. The fog significantly reduced the bird activity. Still we strained to add each species in spite of the sight limitations. Just as in the night, we could hear the ocean but could not see it.

Throughout the morning the fog would dissipate only to return a short while later. Several groups of birders and non-birding tourists stopped by the hawkwatch platform, which is famous for the fall hawk counts in September and October. When they saw our encampment, they asked why we were there and what we were doing. As our fellow World Series teams came past the platform, most of them cast an envious glance and comment our way. To them, sitting in one place seemed to make perfect sense. The Couchless Kingbirds, damp and chilly, weren't so sure. Still our spirits were high, our hands were only slightly shaky on our binoculars and scopes (too much java), and we were determined (or at least I was determined) that we would get 100 species for the day. The count stood at 58 at 9 am.

Climbing the Ladder of Success

The day prior to the World Series, when we scouted the location for our Big Sit circle, I noticed that even with the new, fancy, taller hawkwatch platform we were still too low to see over the dunes to the waterline on the beach. This might mean we'd miss a shorebird species along the beach. We could clearly see the ocean (for gannets, gulls, and osprey) but not the beach (sanderlings, turnstones, oystercatchers, other shorebirds, and any loafing gulls). Grant and I discussed the merits of the 12-foot stepladder, which would get us up high enough to see over the dunes that blocked our view. We even went so far as to visit a Home Depot to purchase one. The $200 price tag for a 20-footer made us look more favorably on the 6-footer available for free at our friend's house in Stone Harbor where we were staying. As it turned out, my hours of sitting on top of the 6-foot stepladder did pay off with sightings of purple sandpiper and sanderling that we might have otherwise missed. I could not help but wonder if we'd been able to see some of the other shorebirds on the beach if we'd had the 12-footer!

Good Birds

On a Big Sit, or any bird counting competition, each bird is equal to exactly one checkmark on the list. So the house sparrow we saw near the park buildings was every bit as important as the northern gannet, the Wilson's warbler, or the peregrine. But this peregrine, that had been haunting the beach and an old World War II bunker just offshore, was a young dark-streaked bird who had not fully figured out how to hunt. We watched it all afternoon making aerial sorties after its rock dove neighbors on the bunker. Each time it made a hunting pass, we expected to see a puff of feathers, but the rock doves outmaneuvered it every time. It turned its attention to a gull (too fast) a sparrow (too small) and even a muskrat (it submerged). Finally, at about 4:30 p.m., the peregrine caught what must have been the oldest, slowest, dumbest rock dove. A cheer went up from The Couchless Kingbirds.

As the day wore on we added species slowly, edging ever closer to our goal of 100.

Food Providers

Diane Hamilton, who is the primary host for our BirdBuzz forums and a resident of Cape May, came to our circle to pass the time and lend her support. We showed her a few birds and she returned the favor by making a sandwich run in the late afternoon. How nice to have a local contact who knows where to get the good hoagies!

The End

Darkness and light drizzle fell upon us. Although the surf was quiet and the wind calm, we were now faced with the noise of the parking lot. Our Big Sit location was conveniently located across the parking lot from the World Series finish line and all of the teams were now arriving to hand in their totals for the day. We took stock of our collective mental and physical state. We gave the list a look to see what species we might possibly still get. There were a few longshots, but nothing that was very likely. So we waved the proverbial white flag and shuffled across the parking lot to the finish line.

Our total number of bird species seen or heard was 105, but because not all team members saw or heard all 105 species, we lost a few ticks from the list. This is called the 95 Percent Rule and is meant to prevent one person on a team from adding a bunch of species that his or her team members did not see or identify. I guess the thinking behind it is that one person might call out a few dubious identifications, but it will be hard for three or four others to go along with such shenanigans. Our "lost" birds were a result of our honesty, integrity, and the fact that the bathrooms were located far across he parking lot. The fact that the bathrooms were heated and dry also meant that when one of us went there, we lingered a bit longer than usual. After all you cannot see a Baltimore oriole from then inside of a men's room'not even in Baltimore.

Our final tally was 100 species even. Not bad for a foggy day at Cape May Point. It was also my biggest Big Sit count ever.

Trophy

There is a traditional Sunday morning brunch following the World Series. The awards are given out, teams exchange war stories, and statements like "Wait ëtil next year!" and "Never again!" are a common as starlings on a suet cake. The all-state WSB teams had compiled incredible species totals, with 224 being the winning tally by the Nikon/Delaware Valley Ornithological Club. In the Big Sit category, the winners (and only team entered) were none other than the Couchless Kingbirds of BWD! We proudly accepted the trophy from Pete Dunne. It was the same trophy the Guerilla Birding Team had won in 1983 and it was going back home to Bird Watcher's Digest.

Special Thanks to:

The Couchless Kingbirds, intrepid sitters all.
Jack Aaron for the use of his Stone Harbor house and the 6-foot stepladder.
Linda Brejwo for the driving and logistical help.
Diane Hamilton for the hoagies and moral support.
Aunt Dot and Jason for the tip on the salt clams.
Pete Dunne, Sheila Lego, and Marlene Murgatroyde for including the Big Sit category in the World Series.