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Weather: Partly cloudy, high in the mid-80's.

Location: Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory Hawk-watch station, Austin, TX

Time At Location: 6:20am - 7:10pm

The Travis Audubon Society sponsored the official Big Sit for 2006 at the hawk-watch station at Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory on Sunday, October 8th. Our day started at 6:20am with Eric Carpenter in the circle. He counted our first bird for the day – Killdeer. His second bird was his reward for starting so early, a Great Horned Owl perched off in the distance. He was soon joined by Sally Breed, Desha Melton, Julia and Andy Balinsky and Roxie Rochat for bird spotting duties. By 8:00 this intrepid group had counted 30 species. Over the course of the day a total of 21 birders had joined us in the circle to help spot our final tally of 54 birds. We closed things down at sundown and counted the Common Nighthawk as our last bird at 7:04pm. We had terrific help from our Hawkwatch coordinator for 2006, Gary Newgord. Since he’s been at that same location nearly every day for a month, he knows the birds there and he certainly knows his raptors! Special thanks go to Kevin Anderson of Hornsby Bend for allowing us early access to the ponds and all-day access to the CER building. We didn’t even get close to last year’s total of 74 species. The summer’s drought affected pond 1-west by promoting the grasses that covered most of its area, so we didn’t have the mud flats that would have given us shorebirds and waders. What we did have was plenty of food, more than enough water, friends that we’ve known for years and new friends made within the circle. Though the birding was quiet, the circle never was. We’ll have to go for a species count record another year, but we’ll hold up 2006 as the level mark for fun! Laurie Foss

Anecdotes:

We counted two birds actually IN our circle - a female Great-tailed Grackle that came in while chasing a bug (which she caught!) and a Merlin flying over. We figure we get extra credit for them.

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Weather: Cloudy, rainy drizzle

Location: Roof of our house

Time At Location: 9.5 hours

A pair of courting Golden Eagles entertained us off and on for 3 hours. Each year we send scouts to sample the road below the house and the pond 1/4 mile away. This year's scouts turned up 3 species we otherwise would not have recorded, but they also saw three species that we couldn't see from the circle (Mallard, Orange-crowned Warbler, & Lincoln's Sparrow). Most difficult observation: locating, from the roof, a kingfisher spotted by a scout,that perched in a tree on the far side of the pond.

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Weather: Mid-70's high bright and sunny light wind in late pm

Location: Sims Park on the lakefront, Euclid, Ohio

Time At Location: 5:30am-6:30pm continuous

A beautiful day to be out. Short waves of warbler groups would drop into the trees at lake edge. The Screech Owl answered our call to start the day. Mobs of Blue Jays sometimes mixed with Robins and Cardinals would raucously occupy a large willow from the same gorge where twice a Cooper's Hawk emerged. The Lake was noticably devoid of the ducks/loons/other water and possible shorebirds we had hoped to catch. In mid-afternoon we were surprised by an immature Bald Eagle flying low over the trees at the edge of the water.

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Approached by several visitors birding and non-birding alike to ask about the activity. It was rewarding to learn of the interests of others and acknowledge their support. Thanks especially to teamates Delores, Nancy and Paula who joyously contributed their considerable time and to Pauline for the hot coffee, brownies, and encouragement.

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Weather: partly cloudy, 15 mph wind, high 59, low 38, no precipitation

Location: Rapid City, SD, eastern foothills of the Black Hills

Time At Location: 6 hours

Not a huge number of species, but it was definitely Sparrow Sunday. At least 15 white crowned sparrows, 1 chippy, 6 house sparrows and 3 varieties of juncos (slate colored, Oregon and white-winged), 2 spotted towhees. Backyard feeders busy all day, as were birdbaths. It has been quite dry here, so water is a premium commodity.

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We had a strong cold front come through Saturday night, 40 mph NW winds, I expected to see some sandhill cranes taking advantage of the "tail wind" but no luck. They usually pass through here about now heading for the Platte River. Maybe next time. Among the dozen or so robins bathing, there was a huge color variety of fall plumage, some were quite bright rusty red on breast feathers and one was so pale, with an almost gray breast that I nearly counted it as a Townsend's solitaire before I got the binoculars on it. Solitaires are regular winter visitors here frequently in the junipers, but not today. They are guaranteed to show up tomorrow! Blue jays and nuthatches very busy taking black oil sunflower seed and peanuts for cacheing. Red breasted nuthatches favor our wood pile and roof shingles, blue jays seem to think the cone clusters on ponderosa pines are a safe place, along with the leaf litter in my perennial beds. Woodpeckers take turns feeding, they don't appear to haul stuff off for storage at this point, anyway. Caroline Stafford

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Weather: heavy rain intersperced with light showers

Location: Huntington Beach State Park, SC (on the Causeway) N 33 30.631' W 79 04.2.2'

Time At Location: 6:00 AM - 5:30 PM

Some of the worst weather for birding for most of the day - heavy downpours, really poor light and in the afternoon it started getting cold and windy as well. Even the birds had more sense than us; we did well to see 48 species!

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Weather: sunny windy high 78, low 64 no rain

Location: 12 acre island off ICW in N.St.Johns County, Florida

Time At Location: 8 hours

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Weather: Temp: L-32* (first frost) H-70* sunny, light NW breeze

Location: Backyard- feeders, mixed woods, fields, gardens

Time At Location: 13 Hours

Total 45 species. Added one new species (Bobolink) to my over all Big Sit List which is now at 76 species.

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Weather: Absolutely beautiful - sunny, high 70's, light breezes

Location: Kathryn Abby Hanna Park in Jacksonville, Florida (A City of Jacksonville Park)

Time At Location: 8am - 6:30pm

A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks took to the early morning thermals floating just over our heads calling out to one another. Later a flock of Anhinga flew overhead, how wonderful. Used the screech owl tape late in the afternoon, things were just too quiet. We stirred up an eastern screech owl to our amazement. What a great day!!

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This was our first Big Sit and by no means our last. We look forward to a bigger and better event next year.

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Weather: There was a strong NE wind, and it was cloudy and warm all day.

Location: Quintana NBS located in Quintana TX. A small migrant trap located one block from the Gulf of Mexico.

Time At Location: From 4:00AM until 7:00PM.

We have a new permanent, 20 foot observation tower. It was increased our viewing area from 180 to 360 degrees. We are now able to see some fresh water ponds, as well as views of the jetties, harbor, and beach. The weather was not conducive to getting many migrants. Quite a few species seen the evening before had departed for southerly climes with the strong NE wind. The wind also kept what passerines that were still there, down in the understory most of the time. However, we were able to add species that we weren't able to get before, so we came out on the plus side. The bird of the day was a Lesser Black-backed gull, and Ron Weeks, Alan, and Mike Hardy deserve all the credit for adding it to the list. It was a good day, with good folks.

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Weather: AM: Cloudy, winds NE~10-25mph, upper 60 degrees; PM: Partly cloudy, same winds, lower 70 degrees

Location: Kiptopeke State Park Hawkwatch Platform (center area)

Time At Location: 0530 - 1945 EST

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Weather: Clear, then 3 hours of dense fog, then sunny. Temps 40's to 60's. Light NW winds in AM which shifted to 5-10 mph SE winds.

Location: Pointe Rosa Marsh at Metro Beach, Harrison Township, MI

Time At Location: 6:30 AM to 7:20 PM.

The day stalled when dense fog for three hours prevented us from seeing anything. Then, the winds shifted to the SE which prevented the hawk migration so numbers were unusually low this year. But, the temperatures were pleasant, we had great views of the resident raptors, and the company was good so we all had a fine time.

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Weather: Mostly Cloudy to Mostly Sunny highs around 70F

Location: Riverbend Park, Great Falls, Virginia

Time At Location: 7am-5:30pm

Steady winds in the morning set up a great raptor flights overhead. Two white-crowned sparrows hung around us all day. Great low over flights of bald eagles, ospreys and red-shouldered hawks. Two Lincoln's sparrows gave the group excellent views. The day ended with close-up looks at Nashville, Tennessee, and yellow-rumped warblers. Rob and Crystal's snacks kept us energized throughout the day and Dave's barbeque was fantastic. Over 30 visitors came and spent some of the day with us. The weather was great!

Anecdotes:

Much thanks to Crystal, Rob, and Dave! Natural thanks to the Magic Tree, the Dip, and the Perch.

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Weather: Thunderstorms after 2:00PM

Location: Our circle is in a mesquite bosque by the Granit Reef Reservoir east of Granite Reef Diversion Dam.

Time At Location: Morning, until 2:00PM

Scouting reports were not promising. We solicit pledges based upon an expected count of 50 or so species, and every year I fear that we'll end up with about 25. Mallards, D-c Cormorants and Yellow-rumped Warblers were about the only species which manifested themselves in our pre-Sit! scouting expeditions.

When I was setting things up late Saturday (Nobody ever said we couldn't spread around a little bird seed ahead of time, right?) a birder came over and introduced himself. He was a visitor to the Valley of the Sun from New Jersey, Frank Bobowski. We chatted a bit, and he volunteered to come back in the morning and help us out. He then said that he was going to take a walk down the trail towards the dam. When I got home there was a message from Frank that he had spotted an American White Pelican down by the dam, and he hoped it would head our way in the morning. It certainly did (a second Sit! occurrence). By the time Frank arrived, about 7:30 a.m., the AWP was swimming right in front of our Circle. Later Frank walked down the trail again and reported back that he had spotted a male Wood Duck, but we were never able to see this guy from our Circle.

This year Sit! newcomers Tom and Rosalinda Partel joined veterans Pete Moulton, Cynthia Donald and me. Before the rapidly moving thunderstorm arrived a little after 2:00 p.m. and brought our 11th Annual Big Sit! to an abrupt end, we had tallied 54 species. We could not have done this without the superior spotting abilities of the other four participants. We had to pack up and depart so quickly, we didn't have time to share the traditional piece of Baclava. We added three new species to our total list for the eleven years, Costa's Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, and a surprisingly never before seen Northern Mockingbird, bringing our total for the eleven years to a cumulative 121 species. We also managed to raise over $1,400 for the Maricopa Audubon Society in Phoenix.

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Weather: Sunny - high 80, low 50

Location: Binder Lake - Cole County, Jefferson City, MO

Time At Location: 6:45am to 6:30pm

First annual Big Sit conducted by the "Midnight Snipe Hunters". Weather was perfect, sunny and high around 80. Best bird of the day was a Northern Goshawk chasing a flock. Also interesting was a flock of 30+ Eastern Bluebirds morning and evening. Some emergence of bugs must have caused this & the viewing was fantastic!

Anecdotes:

We all noted how amazing it was to see quite a few species from one spot. We bird the area for Christmas Bird Count and for Migratory bird count...we're thinking why bother running all around when the birds come to us with a little patience!!

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Weather: Clear, Temp: 45 F - 70 F

Location: Trukey Point, Cecil County, MD, USA

Time At Location: Seven Hours

First Sit for location. Exceeded Expectations!

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Weather: Clear/Partly cloudy; Wind occasional gusts 4-6 mph; 65 low 80 high

Location: Kino Springs club pond; 5 miles NE of Nogales AZ

Time At Location: 0530 am to 1730 pm

The low pond water levels allowed for some great looks at the usually timid Virginia and Sora Rails. A Coopers Hawk flushed five of the ten Black-bellied Whistling Ducks just for fun. The ducks landed back on the pond but only 4 were accounted for, until the fifth lurked out of the reeds we gave a sigh of relief. I really enjoyed meeting the people which came out for a while to watch birds. This was announced in Tucson Audubon's newsletter. But I am sorry for the weedy bushwhack to get to the circle.

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Weather: Clear, High 74.1 Low 40.3

Location: In Front of the Baily Farm Bicentennial Barn, across from the Malabar Inn Restaurant, on Pleasant Valley Road, just west of S.R.

Time At Location: 6:00 AM thru 9:00 Pm

First bird seen or heard was a Northern Cardinal at 6:25 AM, Last bird seen or heard was Eastern Screech Owl at 7:37 PM. This was our second year at the same spot at Malabar Farm, Richland County, Ohio, USA. We Had 11 participants. The weather was great, sun was out all day, 74.1 degrees.

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Weather: Intermittant rain all morning untill 11am- then windy and turning colder limiting land birds

Location: cowans ford wildlife refuge - IBA

Time At Location: Started at dawn 7am - finished at dusk 7pm

Great first time attempt at big sit. With better weather, I feel we could top 50 specis at this location.

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Bestfind was a peregrine falcon. Most memorable site were 8 bluebirds, 1- goldfinch, and 2- black throated green warblers, all in a nearby snag. Most invigorating site were nathans hotdogs and toasted buns hot off the campstove!

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Weather: Sunny, low 70's

Location: Salamonie Lake Nature Center, Huntington Co., Indiana

Time At Location: 2-5 pm

Our group was unable to conduct shifts or have locations close to the water at the reservoir. Our time was picked because many group members attend church. The middle of the afternoon is not the best time to observe bird activity. We all had a great time though, it was nice outside and afterwards we had a carry-in meal at the nature center.

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Weather: Bluebird day. Clear and still at night, 60 f during day- no wind

Location: Riley Pond in Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID

Time At Location: 20.5 hours from 0000 to 2030

Glorious day Clouded Sulpher, Cabbage White, Mylitta Crescent, Satyr Comma, Painted Lady, and Red Admiral were the butterflies that visited our circle

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Weather: Dense fog until early afternoon

Location: Harvey's Knob Hawkwatch on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia

Time At Location: 8am - 8pm

For the second year we again conducted the Big Sit while also conducting the hawkwatch. We were hampered by dense fog until it started burning off around 1pm. We still managed to count 32 species. Highlights were 2 Orange-crowned Warblers that stayed on the west bank of the parking lot most of the day, affording great views, a flock of 14 migrating Great Blue Herons, a first of the season Northern Goshawk, a Peregrine Falcon, and a Merlin, also 50 migrating Sharp-shinned Hawks. We also saw a thrush that only gave a quick look so went unidentified. There was a Magnolia Warbler on the other side of the parkway that we couldn't count since we could not see it from the circle. Also Tad spotted a migrating Red-headed Woodpecker a few miles south of our location on the parkway.

Anecdotes:

A dead battery caused us to stay later than planned but enabled us to add to our count a late in the season, migrating Common Nighthawk. None of us had battery cables so we had to wait until 8pm until the Ranger brought cables. Thank God for cell phones! It gets very cold up on the mountain after the sun goes down.

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Weather: Sunny, 70 degrees

Location: Silver Sands State Park. Milford, CT

Time At Location: 7 1/2 hours

Beautiful Day! Had many passerbys that we introduced to the "Big Sit". We were happy that the Little Blue Heron decide to stay yet another day, so we had it in our count. It has been in the area about a week now.

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Weather: : 59-63 degrees, cool, cloudy & windy with NW winds @ 10-20mph, scattered rain and clearing up a bit in the afternoon.

Location: Dassel, MN. (United States)

Time At Location: 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. 14Hrs.

The morning started out very windy and cool for the birders that arrived at the early hours. Everyone arrived dressed for the weather and occasion, with binoculars, scopes, books, cameras, chairs, and of course, food at hand, they ended up by the Birding Tower. All eyes were looking in every direction possible, whether it be the sky, the trees & bushes, the ground or fields or in the wetlands or water, eyeballs were looking everywhere, watching for anything that caught their attention. With the weather being windy and brisk, we were all still enthusiastic about watching for birds that were good possibilities to be seen in our location again. Everyone kept their energy up throughout the day by enjoying a fantastic potluck of terrific food furnished by the Birders. We also kept our spirits up by reminiscing about our birding stories and laughing quite a bit about some of the jokes done by some, especially the Scissor-tailed Queasel that made an appearance last year and the Artic Short-tailed Wrentit that showed up a few days before the Big Sit. The birds never moved, they just sat in one spot and eventually were located and they got a chuckle when they seen the bird. There were 15 Birders that were present to make the Big Sit a success again this year. Being patient and observant throughout the day, all of us enjoyed it immensely considering the weather was not the greatest. WHAT BIRDERS WE ALL ARE!!!!!!!!!! Some of the species seen were 38 Red-tailed Hawks, 13 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 23 Bluebirds, 4 Bald Eagles, 7 Coopers Hawks, 31 American White Pelicans, and Cedar Waxwings and Yellow-rumped Warblers too numerous to count.

Anecdotes:

Paul and Koni Fank use the Birding Tower quite regularly. They have one day a month set aside, usually the 1st of the month to do a Birding Tower Day. They enjoy the huge variety of bird species that they have observed from the Tower. Fellow Birders have come over at times to enjoy this same experience. They do the Tower day every month of the year, all year long. We want to give a Big Thanks to all participants. This is our second Big Sit and everyone was excited about it and we look forward to the next one.

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Weather: Sunny and clear, slightly breezy, 40 degree start, 70 degree finish

Location: Durand Eastman Park: Lakeshore, directly north of Eastman Lake

Time At Location: 7 a.m. - 6 p.m., 11 hours

Probably saw more dog species with people then bird species, but it was a brillant autumn day, couldn't have asked for better. Didn't see some easy ones...robin?, cardinal? Had hoped for more waterfowl. All in all, good for my first time, would do again, but in a new spot.

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Saw three species of butterfly, monrach, sulfurs, and cabbage white. Saw 85% of my birds before 10 a.m. Special thanks to my visitors for breaking up the afternoon! Full report at: http://jackbearsden.blogspot.com/2006/10/big-sit-wrap-up.html

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Weather: Perfect early October day, sunny to partly cloudy, temps 50-70 degrees, a bit breezy in afternoon

Location: Black Hill Regional Park, Boyds MD

Time At Location: 6 AM-3PM (9 hours)

Our previous high total for the Big Sit was 55 species. This year we passed that number by 9:45 and kept adding new species all day. We left early this year, at 3, since we hadn't seen anything new in a couple of hours, and we had such a high number of birds earlier.

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Best bird was a WILSON'S WARBLER, discovered while two participants were leaving. It was not relocated when we tried to see it the first time, but later as the last 3 of us left we saw the bird from the trail (but not from the Big Sit circle), so 2 of us ran back to the circle and finally did see the bird from there! Number 67 for the day and a new species for our circle.

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Weather: 50-72 degrees, partly sunny

Location: our house on the holston river

Time At Location: 8:00 am to 8:00 pm

It seemed like a slow day, not a lot of movement, one here, one there, but overall we accumulated a surprising total.

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Weather: foggy

Location: Los Altos de Cerro Azul

Time At Location: 24 hours

Pre-dawn it was raining & we missed some of the usual morning bird chorus. Also, due to the foggy weather we had no raptors or swallows. Really great day otherwise.

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We were thrilled to get Rufous Motmot on one of our feeders. They are irregular visitors to the bananas we put out. Monday Oct. 9th was real good too.

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Weather: 60s, 15% cloud cover, calm

Location: Inks Dam National Fish Harchery, near Burnet, Texas

Time At Location: four hours

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Weather: Mostly clear

Location: Huston-Brumbaugh Nature Center s of Vis Center

Time At Location: 00:00-19:00

From midnight until 7 am no birds were heard or seen 21 species were seen between 7 and 8 am

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Laura D deserves a prize for perseverance! Ben Morrison was a huge help with identification

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Weather: Heavily overcast and cool

Location: Tanglewood Park, Winston-Salem, NC

Time At Location: 7:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Last Sunday, October 8th, was the date chosen for the nationwide The Big Sit! event, and for the fourth year running, Forsyth Audubon fielded a team to see what we could find out there. Well, at least what we could find from the constraint of a 17-foot diameter circle. As we've done in prior years, we chose a nice spot of land out at Tanglewood Park. The circle centers around the steel platform on the BMX track access road; it is adjacent to several distinct environments, including a wetlands, forest, and power lines in the distance. Seven of us participated this year and the circle was covered was from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It was a rather slow day for birding. The weather was heavily overcast and quite cool, but the cold front had already arrived on Friday and did not appear to have stirred up much. We had a standout viewing of two first-year Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, a male and a female (and I was glad Phil was able to ID them so readily!). Essentially the entire group managed to see a Magnolia Warbler during various walks to stretch our legs, but we were never able in good faith to claim it from the confines of the circle. We did have our annual Great Blue Heron flyby, and this year you certainly couldn't miss seeing it as it soared all around our viewing area. One interesting note is that the environment in front of the platform has changed substantially. What was fairly wet swamp and bog has been grown over with vegetation and appeared to be quite dry in most places. I'm not certain what impact this had on the lower-than-usual total we experienced, but combined with the weather this probably put a damper on the sightings. We were six sightings shy of last year with a total count of 32 species.

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Weather: 50-55F; wind North 2-11mph; overcast with light rain all day

Location: Chatfield Reservoir State Park; Littleton, CO

Time At Location: 05:30 - 19:10

First a BIG "Thank you" to all the people (about 45) that came out to Chatfield and helped find birds on a cold, overcast, and wet day! Thanks to Chris at Chatfield State Park for the food and drinks, we really appreciated it! The previous best Big Sit was 61 species in 2003. This year we saw a whopping 71 species from a single location (Heronry Overlook deck) throughout the course of a day! Highlights included: My first "Winter" ducks: Ring-necked Duck - 4 Bufflehead - 2 Lesser Scaup - 15 Pomarine Jaeger - 1 dark (seen twice, the second time we had some great looks at the bird as it flew around the swim beach)! Peregrine Falcon - 1 adult (landed on a sandbar and offered some great looks) RED PHALAROPE - 1 (seen several times throughout the day . . . we saw one in last years bad weather) Red-necked Phalarope - 1 (seen late in the day in the company of the Red Phalarope...some great side-by-side comparisons)! Forster's (10) and Common (2) Terns. Sandhill Crane - 46 in three different flocks. 24 birds actually landed on a Platte River sandbar and roosted for the night! Black-bellied Plover - 2 Nick Komar found an interesting bird just before dark that we believe may have been a Dunlin as the light was fading. We just could not be sure! It was dark as I was packing everything up, getting into my car I heard something call....I listened intently and heard the lonely, plaintiff call of the second Black-bellied Plover as it was flying overhead in the dark looking for a place to spend the night....the perfect conclusion to an excellent day! Thanks everyone! Joey Kellner Littleton, CO

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Weather: Cloudy am and rainy pm

Location: Yard

Time At Location: 19 hours

No rarities seen but we counted a nice representation of the local birds. Rain in the afternoon damped down the sightings but still a record number for this circle!

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Weather: sunny 18c

Location: edge of woods

Time At Location: 12 hours

wonderful fall day light breeze frost in am

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Weather: Clean

Location: GNCS,Village:Sindhrot,Dist:vadodara

Time At Location: 5 Hours

This year not many people join me for big sit.only my self and Mr.Lekhrajsing joinBigsit.we start our birding late in the morning at 7:00AM IST. and wind up after 5 hours at 12:00. during our observationwe have seen 28 spices of birds.

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Weather: A very pleasant day, clear and sunny, high 50's to high 70's, mostly calm with a slight breeze in the afternoon

Location: Bush Lupine Point, Elfin Forest, Los Osos, San Luis Obispo County, CA

Time At Location: 5:15 am - 7:30 pm, with some owling 8:00 - 9:00 pm

The weather was too nice - very few passerines were moving, but it was a very beautiful day. The tides were extreme which pushed the waterbirds by us a little faster than usual and pushed many of the shorebirds out of the bay altogether at high tide. It was a good day for raptors soaring, but swallows and swifts were almost nonexistent. Brant and a few duck species had not quite arrived yet either. We had nothing unexpected, but it is hard to complain too much about sitting at a beautiful spot, on a gorgeous day, and birding for hours on end.

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We had 100 species by 9:50 am, but it sure slowed down after that. A little champagne just before sunset and we had a couple of more new birds. Our interesting bird for the day was an apparent Blue-winged X Green-winged Teal hybrid - it was much like nearby Green-winged Teal, but slightly larger with a slightly larger bill and a slight crescent shaped lighter area in the face which had a less distinct pattern than an adult Green-winged, the vertical white bar on the side was absent, and the light flank patch was whitish. We were treated to an Osprey hunting (sucessfully) for fish also.

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Weather: Sunny, cloudless sky, calm southerly winds

Location: Pirie Platform, Celery Farm, Allendale, NJ

Time At Location: 14 hours

Following is based on Rob Fanning's report: The Big Sit! 2006 was blessed with unseasonably warm weather and lots of sunshine, but a cloudless sky and calm southerly winds made Raptor viewing difficult at best. An amazing six new species were added to the Big Sit 12 year cumulative list, raising the cumulative total to 105 species. The new species were Northern Pintail, Semipalmated Plover, Lesser Yellowlegs, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, and Marsh Wren. The 9 a.m. to 12 noon shift set a single-shift record by recording 50 species! By Noon 56 species had already been tallied. The last bird of the day was a single Nighthawk at 6:28 p.m. Total species recorded was 64, ranking 2nd and just behind last year's record of 65. Before this year's count there were 22 species recorded on every Big Sit! That list is now down to 21 species, as Sharp-shinned Hawk was not tallied this year. Some other misses: Ruddy Duck, American Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, Pied-billed Grebe (all reported the day before the Big Sit!), Mute Swan, Northern Harrier, Tree Swallow, and Common Yellowthroat. Interesting that there are now 21 species seen every year and 21 species seen only once! Perhaps most interesting/surprising is the number of species not yet recorded at all on the Big Sit! Rob's top candidates for most overdue species (in no particular order) are: Common Loon, Ring-necked Duck, Virginia Rail, Great Horned Owl, Screech Owl, Red-breasted Nuthatch, House Wren, Winter Wren, Swainson's Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, Black-throated Green Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Red-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Field Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, and Pine Siskin.

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Weather: Beautiful, sunny in the 80's

Location: Our back yard.

Time At Location: 20 hours

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Weather: Mist in morning, 60 degrees, cloudy and 5-10mph easterly wind.

Location: Sandling Swim Beach at Falls Lake State Recreation Area

Time At Location: 645am - 345pm

Flock of 35 Black Terns on flyby. Six Common Loon at lakes center. Warblers, Pewee and Oriole seen in mixed flocks.

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Weather: 45 degrees, 0.3" rain

Location: 7580' asl

Time At Location: 7am - 6pm

miserable day

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Weather: mild, sunny

Location: small suburban backyard

Time At Location: 8 hours, total

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Weather: warm, sunny, light winds

Location: East Lyme CT.

Time At Location: 7.5 hours

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Weather: Clear, Northeast winds

Location: Sebastian Inlet State Park, Fl

Time At Location: 0530-1100 and 1800-1930

15 species of warblers, including Magnolia and Tennessee Fulvous-whistling Duck- Flock of 15 birds Frigatebird- Male flew over twice Glossy Ibis- 5, rare at the park Good numbers of migrant hawks

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Misses- Blue-winged Teal, Sandhill Crane, Oystercatcher, White Pelican, Herring Gull

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Weather: Cool early then warmer with sun all day

Location: North end of lake at Buck Creek State Park

Time At Location: 6:40 AM to 5:15 PM

The southerly winds all day halted migration for the day. We saw the same shorebirds all day. Nothing moved in at all. We didn't see a single swallow. Our count was a little lower than previous years.

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Seeing both the Sora and Virginia Rail skulking at the edge of the cattails was the highlight of the day.

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Weather: Mostly sunny; low near 50, high near 70. Winds NE 5-10, highest 12pm-4pm.

Location: Backyard deck along Reed's Beach Road; ~1/4 mile from Delaware Bay, ~15 miles N of Cape May, NJ

Time At Location: 12:00am-2:00am, 7:00am-7:00pm, 11:30pm-11:59pm

A new single-day record for this site. Highlights included Brown Pelican, 8+ Bald Eagles, Sora, 2 Hudsonian Godwits (1st site record!), Common Nighthawk, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-headed Woodpecker, 11 warbler spp., 2 Dickcissels. An estimated 15,000+ Tree Swallows moved through during the first two hours of daylight. A decent hawk flight developed, involving ~100 sharpies, ~25 kestrels, ~20 cooper's hawks, 8+ bald eagles, 4 red-tailed hawks, 4 merlins, 4 harriers, 3 osprey, 3 peregrines and 1 red-shouldered hawk. Songbirds trickled by throughout the day, and the marsh edge hosted a fair diversity of passerines. Waterbirds were scarce in Delaware Bay, but she did eventually give up 3 spp. of terns, Black Scoter, and the site's 1st ever Hudsonian Godwits! Species #100 was a Common Nighthawk at dusk. Also observed- Butterflies -Cloudless Sulphur: 2 -Orange Sulphur: 1 -Mourning Cloak: 1 -Common Buckeye: 3 -Monarch: ~30 Dragonflies -Com. Green Darner: 24 -Wandering Glider: 10 -Black Saddlebags: 6

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Weather: 50's to 80's, slight breeze. Beautiful

Location: Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Mound City, Missouri, USA

Time At Location: 12:01 AM until 5:45 PM

From 12:01 AM until 5:45 PM yesterday we had observers in our "Big Sit" circle on the observation deck at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Mound City, Missouri. A slight breeze made it very comfortable on this unseasonably warm day for the month of October. A total count of sixty-one (61) bird species were tallied. (During my time there I was able to see 46 of the 61). Some great birds were seen by Laura Gilchrist, one of our mid-morning watchers. Peregrine Falcon, Common Moorhen and Least Bittern were "life" birds for her and the Sandhill Crane was a new species for her for Missouri. Congratulations, Laura! Our "circle" group had fourteen (14) species of waterfowl, only one gull species, four (4) waders, six (6) species of raptors and various representatives of other bird families. We really do miss the "woodland" bird species from our vantage point on the observation deck, but it is difficult to find a location to set up our circle where multiple habitats are within viewing/hearing distance. Good luck to others groups who may want to try the "Big Sit" experience. There were only three circles registered in the state of Missouri this year. It would be great to see more "circles" springing up in the future, not only in the state of Missouri but in the rest of the country (World) as well.

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Weather: Windy, cool, partly cloudy

Location: Mt Hosmer City Park, Lansing, Iowa

Time At Location: Just 6 hours: 4:30 AM to 10:30 AM

Other than Turkey Vulture, no birds of prey were observed - primarily due to weather and Big Sit day is a week or two too late for best raptor viewing at this location. Also, passerines were in very short supply - due more than likely to the same reasons. Only 1 owl responded to my tapes (Great Horned Owl) so despite less than desireable weather conditions for bird movement, the 2.5 hours spent in darkness could have been better spent at this site during daylight hours. Thanks for coordinating this sedentary event. It's a nice diversion from everyday life. I expect to be back at the same circle next year.

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Weather: The weather was calm and sunny, although rather cool. It was partially cloudy at times. The temperature was 58 to 60 degrees F

Location: Near the McNary Wildlife Nature Ponds, about 1 mile below McNary Dam.

Time At Location: 8 a.m. to 12 noon, both circles

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Weather: The weather was calm and sunny, although rather cool. It was partially cloudy at times. The temperature was 58 to 60 degrees F

Location: Nelow McNary Dam, but about a quarter of a mile downstream from the dam. It is less than 1 mile from the town of Umatilla, OR.

Time At Location: 8 a.m. to 12 noon

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Weather: Hot and sunny, after endless days of rain

Location: Tra Su, Chau Doc, An Giang Province, Viet Nam

Time At Location: 06:30 - 09:30, 16:30 - 18:30

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Weather: Thick fog and limited visibility.

Location: Hughes River Gap, Shenandoah National Park

Time At Location: Six-thirty AM through one PM EDT.

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Weather: Mostly sunny, cloud development in afternoon, light NE wind for majority of the day

Location: Richfield Riversilt along the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge, LA

Time At Location: 0430h-1930h

Very warm, stagnant weather conditions were replaced with cooler, less humid conditions following a dry cold front on thursday night, two days before the count. Almost identical to last year's weather pattern. This meant that there would be a more significant movement of landbird migrants behind the front, which would in turn produce a higher species total. A combination of the two factors allowed for a very pleasant big sit. The day began at 430am with hopes of nocturnal flight calls adding to the species total. This proved to be a very essential tactic, as it usually is, to maximize the coverage of the site. The early morning sky was alive with the flight calls of southbound migrants, predominantly consisting of Indigo Bunting and Blue Grosbeak. We strained our ears over the noise pollution of an oil refinery across the river. The pre-dawn movement included four species of thrush and two Scarlet Tanager, species otherwise missed diurnally. Amidst the intermittent flurries of nocturnal flight calls, a single Great Horned Owl hooted from the mature trees as two Eastern Screech-Owls exchanged whinnies. Under the full moon, a Barred Owl was spotted as it flew into a nearby pecan. At dawn's first light, a stream of swallows began to course over the count circle, moments after lifting off from nightly roosts. The day was off to a satisfying start by sunrise. There was a fairly steady increase in new species up until 1100am. Between 130pm and 430pm, only two species were added to the count, Summer Tanager and Hairy Woodpecker. The remainder of the day was unexpectedly slow following the painfully slow afternoon lull. Noteworthy birds consisted of four Wood Stork moving NW at 520pm(possible late date for southern interior LA), Jaeger sp. at 645pm on sand bar in Mississippi River, Swainson's Hawk at 1045am moving west over the river, and Philadelphia Vireo at 1030am (second consectutive year). Other highlights include pre-dawn thrush diversity and a doubling of warbler species from last year. Equally impressive was the raptor diversity, which peaked between 1000am and 1100am. Also mentionable, was a considerably large push of dispersing/migrating groups of Blue Jay throughout the day. And the first noticeable movement of woodpeckers (Northern Flicker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker) this fall occured on sunday, along with some recent arrivals to the area such as Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Swamp Sparrow, and Lincoln's Sparrow. The most suprising miss was White-eyed Vireo (first time missing this species on a birding outing in LA)! Other big misses included Wood Duck (39 last year), White Ibis, Osprey, Spotted Sandpiper (no shorebirds other than Killdeer), Ring-billed Gull, Inca Dove (several pairs on property), Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, Baltimore Oriole, and House Finch.

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Another excellent tally for southern interior Louisiana in fall, just 3 species shy of last year's count.

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Weather: Sunny, highs in the upper 60s, a little wind in the evening

Location: Provo Airport Dike - Utah Lake, Utah County, Utah

Time At Location: 6:30 a.m. - 12:00 and 4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 9 ½ hours

This was our 5th annual Big Sit. KC and I started the count at 6:30 a.m. Our first birds of the day were a couple of Barn Owls flying around our circle while it was still dark. Very Fun. Harold showed up a little to late for the owls but in time for the rush of species at dawn. Milt and Tuula came by a little later in the morning and we all had a great time bird watching and chatting on a very beautiful, sunny day. We ended the day with a total of 46 species. 9 short of our record. We saw 4 new species we had never before seen during our previous sits... Osprey, Virginia Rail, Bank Swallow and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Which puts our 5 year overall list at 92 species. If we could only get all those in one day. Some sightings of note which we couldn’t count - KC left the circle for a moment and flushed a Common Poorwill off the side of the road very near the circle but we couldn’t see it FROM the circle. Other birds seen nearby but not from the circle were; Loggerhead Shrike, American Robin, Morning Dove and Brewer’s Blackbird. There was also a Red Fox hunting out in the fields around the airport that entertained us for a while.

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Our Big Sit is always held on the opening weekend of the duck hunt. Due to higher water levels this year the marshes were again filled with water. At 6:58 the relative silence was broken by hundreds of gun shots and shots were heard persistently throughout the morning. The hunting appeared to be much better than in years past. One friendly hunter set up right near our sit circle before dawn and again at dusk. He even pointed out a few birds with us after he was done hunting in the morning. He got a few ducks in the morning, nothing we didn’t already have on our list, but in the evening he came back with a Northern Shoveler which we were never able to identify from our circle. Many of the birds he shot in poor light so we were unable to identify them, but we saw most of them fall into the water. So... can we count this shoveler if we most likely saw the duck fall? (We didn’t count it. If we had been one away from our record we would have.)

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Weather: Sunny 40's - lower 70's

Location: Newton Falls, Ohio

Time At Location: 6am - 3pm

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Great weather to sit around! We had a total of 45 species, 5 more than last year. We had a few hard misses like Mourning Dove, House Sparrow, and Tufted Titmouse...how did we miss those? Look forward to next year!

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Weather: Mostly cloudy all day, calm in morning with windy (wind strength 1 to 2) in afternoon

Location: Buckley's Hole, Bribie Island 60k N of Brisbane. Fresh water lake adjacent to sand dunes, with sea and sand bars. Urban area.

Time At Location: 5.10 hours to 17.30 hours, 12 hours 20 minutes

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