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Weather: partly cloudy

Location: backyard

Time At Location: 2 hours

Tough to observe birds since almost all the leaves are still on the trees. At least we finally got a day when it didn't rain!

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Could only devote 2 hours since we were in Mass. for a wedding the day before. Only got home at 3pm.

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Weather: Clear, cool breezy

Location: Indigo Hill Birding Tower, Whipple OH

Time At Location: midnight to 1 am, 5:17 am to 8:45 pm

We had a record-setting day at the Indigo Hill birding tower, home of The Whipple Bird Club, breaking our old Big Sit record of 62 species with a 2004 total of 65 species. Other participants who helped in our record-setting day: Eva Bradley, Lucine Wright, Phoebe Thompson, Liam Thompson, Mike Niman, Bill Thompson, Jr., Elsa Thompson, Allopocus Thompson, Laura Rudie, Jake Rudie, James R. Hill III, Zoe Foster, Nate, Eileen, Kate, and Gwen Wooley.

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Weather: 40-65 degrees, wind NNE 5-10 MPH, sunny

Location: Metropolitan Beach Metropark, Point Rosa

Time At Location: 12.5 hours, 6:45 am to 7:15 pm

In addition to 54 species of birds, we also saw 4 species of mammals, 6 species of butterflies, 4 species of dragonflies, several spiders floating on thier webs and two praying mantis.

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Two bicyclists and six walkers all let their curiosity get the better of them and came up to our berm to see what we were doing. All were impressed.

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Weather: Sunny, high temp. 71

Location: Back deck of the nature center at Fox Island County Park, Allen County, IN

Time At Location: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The most unexpected was a red-shouldered hawk flying over, and just before the end we heard a great horned owl call several times.

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We had fewer park visitors than bird species, but we got a picture and very accurate article on the front page of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette!

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Weather: 55-69 degrees, mostly cloudy, south wind

Location: My front yard

Time At Location: 7:30-4:30 (9 hours)

New to the count were Blue-headed Vireo, Tree Swallow, Herring Gull, and Black Duck. We missed most hawks and other migrants because the wind was from the south for most of the day.

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This is the first Big Sit that we've had begging Goldfinch young (all day long, incessant), spring peepers calling, and mosquitoes!

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Weather: Overcast, then sunny, then cold, cloudy and windy.

Location: Wardens Watch at the Celery Farm overlooking Lake Appert, Allendale, NJ.

Time At Location: 13 hours

The Celery Stalkers Big Sit! 2004 was a big success, as well as lots of fun. Our total number of species for the day was 61. This matches our previous high count of 61 in 2001. We tried very hard to get that 62nd species, but to no avail. As in baseball, there is always next year! One new species was added to our cumulative count, the American Pipit, bringing our cumulative total to 96 species. The team totals, for the competitive minded were: 6 to 9 -- 48 species, 9 to 12 -- 47 species, 12 to 3 -- 37 species, 3 to 6 -- 32 species. The day started out overcast but the sun came out by 9 a.m., just as the first team was ending it’s watch. It was mostly sunny from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, partly cloudy from 12 noon to 3 p.m., and at 3 p.m. the winds started to blow and the temp dropped dramatically, we were huddled in our winter coats and still were cold -- the 3 to 6 stats were low as no self respecting bird would be out in those conditions! We were sustained through the day by Carolyn’s home baked cookies! Our attempts to communicate with our peers in the UK, the Friary Hills American Coots, by cell phone and e-mail were unsuccessful. They were probably out celebrating their successful count of 85 species.

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Team members: Carol Flanagan, Malcolm Chesworth, Barbara Blumenfeld, Stan Blumenfeld, Rob Fanning, George Flanagan, David Kaplan, Ivan Kossak, Darlene Lembo, Mike Limatola, Sean Ondich, Rochana Muenthongchin, Kurt Muenz, Jim Schlick, Carolyn Smith, Simon Streatfeild, Jody Stroker, Kevin Watson, Penny Whitlock

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Weather: Temp = 62-68 Wind = E 0-15 RH = 83-94% BP = 29.98-30.05 Partly to Mostly Cloudy - Ocassional Rain showers.

Location: Cullman, Alabama

Time At Location: 18.5 hrs

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Weather: Hard rain,high wind,thunderstorms +computer broke

Location: Fernwood, Ms.

Time At Location: 8 hours

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Weather: Overcast and windy, high of 72, thankfully no rain.

Location: Kingston Steamplant, Kingston TN.

Time At Location: 5:45 to 7:00

I noticed a mistake in my site choice as soon as we set up...all I could here was the semis on the nearby highway! I bird so much by ear that I felt handicapped. But besides that, it was a great place to spend the day. The highlights for me was getting wonderfully close looks at the brown-headed nuthatches that have a small population at this location. Also, when we were close to packing up, I thought I heard a Chimney Swift, looked up, and saw perhaps a hundred so high up they were specs in the sky. Somehow the sound of one carried down to us and we got species #54. What a good time! I look forward to this becoming a yearly tradition for me and my birding buddies.

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Our first go at a Big Sit was a Big Blast! We all had a great time, and the species came at intervals just right to keep the excitement going. I'm not sure how our male visitors felt about being Titted Tuftmice, but they came and helped us along anyway. Big thanks to all who visited our circle and added species Kim and I surely would have missed.

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Weather: 57-67, overcast early, then clearing, light to moderate winds, a terrific early fall day!

Location: meadow/yard at Ellis home, Steele Ridge, Red House (Putnam County) West Virginia

Time At Location: 16 hours

We had hoped for three owl species, but were glad to get Great Horned and 2 thrushes in the pre-dawn hour. The majority of birds appeared between 8 and 10 am, but sharp-eyed Kim got us 3 new species, one each in the three hours after 12 noon. We were really happy to get Pine Siskin and later found out that a number of other folks in the state had them show up or pass through for the first time on this date.

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This was a great crew of counters! We even carved a pumpkin in the slow afternoon. Karen designed an "Alien?! Barn Owl." It gleamed softly in the dark, later, as we hoped vainly for more owls, but we did see three nice big arching shooting stars.

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Weather: Cloudy, windy, and spitting rain off and on.

Location: Hope Falls, NY in a wilderness setting in the southern Adirondacks

Time At Location: 5:45am till 7:50pm

Windy, and bitter cold for early October, temp. was about 41 all day but windchill was closer to 30-35. Because of remoteness of our circle we knew species would be limited, but not THIS limited. No ruffed grouse (thanks to coyote population), No pileateds, and no accipiters. Weather no doubt played a factor on our lack of sightings. Even the abundant deer were no where to be seen. But the menu was dead on thanks to teammate Chef Jeff.

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Morning was started with sausage and mushroom omelets. Lunch brought on grilled shrimp ka-bobs with veggies. For Dinner, herb infused chicken and grilled asparagus with smashed turnip potatos. We had a good time, wish weather had been better though, so we could've stuck it out. After nearly 14 hours we packed out and headed for hot toddies and fleece lined slippers.

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Weather: Foggy early, high clouds most of the day 58-75 with light winds

Location: Knoxville, TN

Time At Location: 6:30am-11:30pm

Good weather, good times, great idea. We birded on the roof of the screen porch at our home.

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Weather: Clear, 40-70 degrees

Location: Roof of our home in Franktown CO

Time At Location: 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Five magpies chased a Northern Harrier, as it cruised around and around over a conifer hillside south of us, for 10 minutes until the harrier finally soared toward the Big Sit! site and disappeared over the north hillside.

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Weather: beautiful - mid 70's with a cool breeze

Location: my yard on Neeb Rd

Time At Location: Noon to 5 p.m.

I got the red shouldered hawk because of the call and then he circled over head. Great bird for my back yard.

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This was my first time and it was great just sitting and observing the natural happenings around me.

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Weather: clear, calm, low in 70's high in 90's

Location: Frontera Audubon, 1101 South Texas Blvd. Weslaco, Texas

Time At Location: 6am till 4:30pm

Very little warbler activity although there were many the day before. A constant stream of migrating raptors.

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Weather: 7am.38-8am wind 20mph-10am a bit of sunshine-Noon rain,time to go. 2pm lighting,thunder,rain,hail,sleet & snow.

Location: WOODLAND LAKE PARK--PINETOP-LAKESIDE, AZ.

Time At Location: 7am until rain at Noon

Very low water level in the lake caused by several years of low snow and rain. Lake at 30%. Many migrant ducks we had 2yrs ago have not returned. Next year we may try a different location, but mid Oct is still early for most of our winter migrants.

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Weather: There were no clouds nor wind.

Location: Jack and Pat Dean's backyard in Pleasant Township, Marion County, OH.

Time At Location: 12 hours.

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We broke our record. It was 27, now we have 28. Some of the species we see during this time of year stayed hidden. Of course the next 2 days, they appeared.

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Weather: Partly cloudy, windy

Location: Lake Buchanan public boat ramp FM 690 off HWY 29 W ob Bburnet, Burnet County, Texas

Time At Location: 12 hours

Raptor migration in progress. Many Black Vultures and some Turkey Vultures migrating. American White Pelicans heavy migration. Found a pair of Verdin building nest for their winter roost.

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Weather: Mostly sunny; temperature min 50; max 60, wind SW 5-10 mph

Location: The Cove, Seaside, Oregon

Time At Location: 08:00 to 14:30

The weather was much better than last year, but there were fewer migrant ducks and hawks than expected. Passerine activity was spotty as well.

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Weather: brisk N winds except variable mid-day, clear sky, 8 to 18C

Location: hawk viewing tower, Holiday Beach Conservation Area, ON

Time At Location: 7:30am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Highlights of the Holiday Beach Big Sit included thousands of waterfowl, 1400 Turkey Vultures, a dark phase Red-tailed Hawk, +75,000 Blue Jays, +400 American Goldfinch.

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Banders also released Hermit Thrush, Nashville Warbler and Red-eyed Vireo from the tower (not included in Big Sit total)

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Weather: fair and breezy, low 60s

Location: Friary Hills, Norflok, England

Time At Location: 12 hours

The Friary Hills American Coots, a coalition of the willing, boasted eight birders from North Jersey, plus four birders from around Blakeney, a picturesque village on the North Sea in Norfolk, where “The Eagle Has Landed” was filmed many years ago. The Sit site, Friary Hills, a National Trust property, provided an elevated view of the local marshes and shoreline. Although the New Jerseyans, on holiday in Britain, included a few Big Sit veterans from the Celery Farm Natural Area, the key to the circle’s success was the four Brits, who were outstanding birders and excellent company. The weather was great if a tad breezy. The first half of the team, working from 6 to 9 a.m., saw 60 of the 85 species total. The team consisted of Brits Paul Laurie, Graham Lubbock, and Chris and Carol Archer, as well as Yanks Stiles and Lillian Thomas, John and Pat Brotherton, Charlie Mayhood, Betty Aiken, Patty Finn, and Jim Wright.

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Weather: Cloudless, mild wind, 65 degrees

Location: by Granite Reef Reservoir, Tonto National Forest, northeast of Mesa, Arizona

Time At Location: the whole day

On October 10, 2004, upon our pre-dawn arrival at 5:45 a.m., the weather was an idyllic 65 degrees. It was cloudless, and there was a mild breeze. But we encountered a minor glitch. The gate to the area was locked, despite the fact that I had made arrangements with the Chief Forest Ranger beforehand to leave the gate open for us. The result was that we had to park our vehicles outside the gate and carry our rather copious amount of equipment and supplies under the barrier and about twice as far as we would have needed to had we been able to drive in. When the Ranger finally arrived about an hour later, rather than an apology, we caught heck for leaving our vehicles parked in front of the gate. But in a world beset by major problems, this one certainly was miniscule.

Music to our ears was the pre-dawn chorus, and we were able to list about ten species before it became light enough to see, including a Great-horned owl. Over the years we have averaged about 50 species for the Big Sit!, and each year my pre-Sit! scouting leaves me predicting dire results. This year was no exception. The area has suffered drought conditions for about the past four years, and the reservoir was quite low. Also, the cattails had grown quite high on the east side, partially obscuring our view up the reservoir. I had intended to bring a ladder, but I forgot. All these impediments notwithstanding, we ended up with 55 species in this our ninth year, one better than our last year’s record of 54. (Our list is attached.) We added two new species to the overall Sit! list, Long-billed dowitcher and MacGillivray’s warbler, bringing our cumulative total for the nine years to 113. My favorite bird for the count was a Red-breasted nuthatch, a little south of his usual territory, and making an appearance for only the second time on the Sit!

Our intrepid crew consisted of regulars Pete Moulton and Cynthia Donald (the real bird experts), Adam and Phyllis Martin, sophomore counter Cynthia Grant and me. Around noon Charles and Marion Saffell showed up to help. Charles led the first Maricopa Audubon field trip I ever attended back about 1979. Unfortunately, Charles has become afflicted with a sepsis that has gone to his knee joint replacement, but once he hobbled over to the circle, this was no longer an impediment.

Incidental highlights were our traditional baklava, a dead striped skunk in the woods about a hundred yards from the Circle, which only smelled when the wind blew from that direction, which, thankfully, was not that often. While the shorebirds and waterfowl were sparse this year, the passerines in our mesquite bosque were abundant.

We raised about $1,000 to help Maricopa Audubon Society purchase a PowerPoint projector and laptop computer.

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Weather: It rained like all-get-out!

Location: Edge of the Earth Road, Lexington, OK

Time At Location: 12 hours

This was our 4th Big Sit! and even tho' we were rained out, we did add one new species to our count list: American Goldfinch. Also, our Hairy WP and American Robin were only the 2nd time those birds have shown up on our Big Sit! day. So that's somethin', anyway. We had Ruby-throated Hummers at the feeders on the 8th and 9th but not the 10th!! Oh, well, hoping for better weather next year....

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Weather: breezy, on/off cloudy/clear

Location: small backyard, bordering small stand of trees

Time At Location: 7 hours

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Weather: Clouds to sun, front moved through! No rain for once!

Location: Lenoir Nature Preserve

Time At Location: 6 AM to 4 PM

10 Eastern Bluebird visited each and evryone of our nest boxes in the field. I hope they remember them in the spring. Our last bird was a Lincoln's Sparrow, our best bird of the Day. The four Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcon and Black Vulture were nice too. Great Egret and Greater Yellowlegs were surprises as we saw them flying down the Hudson River

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Weather: Partly Cloudy

Location: Utah Lake - Provo Airport

Time At Location: 7:00 A.M. - 2:30 P.M. & 5:30 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.

KC and I were joined by Milt Moody, Tuula Rose and Larry Draper for part of the day. We had a good time even though we didn't pass last years total. We saw 45 species, 8 species short of last year. Even though we didn't reach our goal, 45 species from one spot on a beautiful day with good company is a successful Big Sit. The most interesting birds were Herring Gull, Western Scrub-Jay, Mountain Chickadee and Lincoln's Sparrow.

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Weather: Wind from north moderate speed. Sunny.

Location: Sterling State Park, Monroe, MI

Time At Location: 6 am EST to 5 pm EST

North wind hindered any flights from the lake (east) to the land (west). As a result few birds followed the shore line from the north and over the site. Few raptors!

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It was cold in the shade. More visitors than last year. Nine this year.

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Weather: Mixture of sun and clouds;high temp 64;low tem 42

Location: My backyard in a local Park...surrounded by wooded areas and landscaped parkland.

Time At Location: approximately 6 hours

Not a lot of activity during the time spent observing...had just returned from an out west birding trip and suffered from jet lag which reduced the amount of observation time! Missed the early morning hours which perhaps would have allowed for a longer bird list. Really appreciated the opportunity to participate!!!

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Weather: Temperature ranged from 66 to 70 degrees, winds 7-9 mph, steady rain

Location: C. Bickham Dickson Park aka Red River Education and Research Park

Time At Location: 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

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Weather: 60's rain on and off

Location: North East side of Lake Yahola, Tulsa Oklahoma

Time At Location: 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

It rained steady from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. then light rain on and off the rest of the day. The birding was very slow compared to the day before. The day before we birded for 1 hour and had 53 speices with good weather and had only 59 for the whole count.

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Weather: warm and clear

Location: west end of Causeway, Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet SC (N33 30.631', W79 04.202')

Time At Location: 6:00 AM til 6:00PM

A number of members of the Waccamaw Audubon Society and some visitors participated in the Big Sit at the West end of the causeway. Two new species were added for this count: Black necked stilt and Wilson's warbler. Some big misses: N. Mockingbird, and Carolina Chickadee especially come to mind. There were some other birds in the park Lori Martin reported seeing a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER, and Am. Redstart along the carriage path. While Murray Honick also had Blue-gray Gnatcatcher there as well as a Reddish Egret at the Oyster recycling area where a Hudsonian Godwit had been reported from the day before.

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Weather: Clear and calm with a slight northerly winds

Location: Pte. Mouillee

Time At Location: 7:00am to 6:00pm

The 1st bird on the count was a Black-crowned Night Heron, followed with one American Bittern flying over the marsh. A Peregrine Falcon pick off a Blue Jay off the water and flew up above the platform and did the final kill on the Blue Jay before flying off to feed. Everyone who came to the Pte. Mouillee and help out all had a fun time.

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Weather: Sunny with a light northerly winds

Location: Lake Erie Metropark on the Detroit River about 23 miles southwest of downtown Detroit

Time At Location: 7:30 Am to 6:30 PM

The first Rough-legged Hawk of the season was sighted today. In October Bobolink is a scarce migrant in Michigan; thanks to Calvin Brennan the bird made it on the Big Sit.

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Weather: Heavy fog early, changing to a sunny, calm afternoon

Location: Two miles south of Oregon City in my yard.

Time At Location: 19 hours

We went up from 18 species in 2003 to 24 species this year. This is great for our location. I would expect under best conditons and much luck to push 30 species. Small number for some locations, BIG for us! Al Ahlgrim

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I had a raging cold, but felt better spending the day looking for birds than sitting around feeling sorry for myself. Al

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Weather: Cloudy all day

Location: 4304 Tucker North Court Tucker Ga

Time At Location: 7 hours

The third year in a row at the same spot. A dull day except for a group of about 25 to 30 birds ( a few Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 5 Scarlet Tanagers and over 20 Thrushes - mostly Wood and Swainson's and 2 Gray-cheeked ) that fed all day on dogwood berries. Lack of migrants- only one warbler and it was new to the sit. 35 species this year vs. 38 last year and 43 the year before. The cumulative list stands at 58. New this year: Ring-billed Gull (early), Hairy Woodpecker (Uncommon), Gray-cheeked (rare) and Swainson's Thrushes, Chestnut-sided Warbler (relatively common in migration), and Eastern Towhee (uncommon in my neighborhood).

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Weather: Tropical storm Matthew

Location: Kalorama Nature Preserve

Time At Location: 0

We had to cancel our count due to flooding and stormy weather.

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Weather: Sunny and partly cloudy 70F

Location: San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary

Time At Location: 5:30 AM to 1:00 PM and 5:30 PM to 6:45 PM

Fewer people this year and fewer hours spent in the circle. Whether that resulted in our lower total, I don't know. But we did not get quite a few fairly common birds we would normally expect to find. In general we are seeing significantly reduced numbers of ducks and shorebirds at the sanctuary, though in those categories we at least got one of most of what we could expect. Our best bird was in my opinion the last bird, but the other guys were not there so cannot argue with me. At 6:00 PM two Peregrines were being mobbed by some of the many thousands of crows that flock in to roost around the sanctuary every evening. In all it was a rather uneventful day with no stand-out moments but as always a very enjoyable one. We're ready for next year!

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Weather: A beautiful fall day. Mostly sunny, temps in the sixties, NW wind at 10-15 mph.

Location: Snickers Gap Hawkwatch

Time At Location: Nine AM until five PM, EDT

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Weather: 12:01 am clear, 42 degrees; mid-morning partly cloudy; pm very cloudy, 70 degrees

Location: Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, approximately 5 miles south of Mound City, MO. The

Time At Location: 12:01 am until 7:00 pm

In addition to team members we had 60 visitors stop by our circle. Our circle was in northwest Missouri but we had visitors from Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New York and believe it or not...Australia...as well as outstate Missouri. This was our first attempt for this event...but we plan to do it again next year.

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Just as a couple of our team members were setting up camp at 1 minute past midnite on October 10th (that's 12:01 am). A "Pink Flamingo" showed up in our circle. (Northwest Missouri is not a place you usually find a "Pink Flamingo"). But he just made himself at home, and what is truly remarkable, "Pinky" stayed on watch with us all the way until 7:00 pm. Those of us submitting our "Eagle Eyes" team report are in somewhat of a quandary as to whether we should count him on our species list, OR as a team member due to his steadfastness to bird watching duties, all the while standing upright on just one leg. He did report that the midnight skies were beautiful with more stars than he could count, but some of the eerie night sounds made him a little nervous. He was happy when daylight dawned, and a few more team members showed up (safety in numbers, you know). He continued to greet other team members and visitors throughtout the day. All in all, he seemed very pleased with his first Big Sit experience, greeting visitors etc, and will most likely join the team in 2005 if invited. If you have an opinion on whether "Pinky" should be listed on the specie list...or as a valuable team member...or ??? please let us know. What's life without a little fun...huh!

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Weather: NW winds 5-20. Clear then overcast. 50 - 55 F

Location: Culver Causeway, Culver Lake, Branchville, NJ

Time At Location: 11 hrs.

Snipe flying around marsh at dawn giving a rasping call. Imm. Merlin harrassing other birds. Later seen flying with prey, looked like a Flicker. Ad. Bald Eagle at 10:35 AM flew east. Imm. BE at 3:35 PM flew west.

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Weather: clear and sunny

Location: rural 3 acres in Northern St. Augustine, Florida

Time At Location: approx. 5 hours

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Weather: Overcast, cool, and rain off and on through out the day.

Location: Salt Plains NWR. Jet, Oklahoma. Bay with wooded area near by.

Time At Location: 7 hours

We had 47 species for total count. If it wasn't for the shorebirds our counts would of been pretty low. The exspected perigrine falcon finally made its showing. For our first year we had nine people participate.

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Weather: clear to cloudy to clear to cloudy and so on..

Location: Hammonasset State Park, Madison CT

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

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I tried a new area this year - Hammonassett State Park in Madison, CT. Since the first event in 1993 (aside from 2 years in my yard with my daughter), I sat at Milford Point with the legendary birder, Frank Gallo. Hammonassett had always been our "enemy" challenging us for the most birds in CT. Frank was not happy that I went over to the other side, and retaliated by getting a Yellow Rail in his circle. Although I deserved it, I still hate him dearly. But, this year I wanted to take a different tack. Instead of the intensive sedentary birding that takes place at Milford Point I thought it would be fun to make this one more like a tailgating party. We chose a spot that we knew would have a lot of birding traffic and Jerry Connolly, Bill & Cindi Kobak and I greeted and welcomed many passers by. Because of the underwhelming numbers of birds (62 spp), we had much time to relax in our beautiful setting and I got to meet new people and some who I haven't seen for years. I think the grilled sausage and peppers is a touch that will be included for now on. And, as with the very first BIG SIT!, the setting sun was toasted with cups of wine.

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Weather: Partly Cloudy, little or no wind

Location: East End of Sunset Beach, Lake Sammamish State Park, WA, USA

Time At Location: 10:30 - 11:30 am, 6:00 - 6:40 pm

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Unfortunately due to family obligations, we could not devote much time to the count this year. Look forward to next year's count!

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Weather: Partly Cloudy, 5-10mph wind, 62 degrees

Location: 47 Buckeye Road, Glen Cove, NY, 11542

Time At Location: 7:00am-9:00pm

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Weather: Pleasant, but a little too breezy

Location: southern Jug Bay

Time At Location: 3.5 hours

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Weather: Gray & mostly cloudy, 60-64F, w/ cold windchill N 3-25mph. Sun did break out for 2 hours midday.coldfront went through 2am.

Location: Milford, CT - CT Audubon's Coastal Center tower

Time At Location: 5:45am-4:50pm

Total was 5 species more than last year at this site. A more diverse flight of passerine migrants was hoped for, but front came through too late in night. Nothing too unusual seen. Highlights were pintail, 2 peregrines, red knot,blue-gray gnatcatcher. Surprising misses were: Am. Bittern, Gadwall, any seaducks, Clapper Rail, Least Sandpiper, Monk parakeet, Cedar Waxwing.

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We would likely have done better if we had all been present for the whole day; Luke & I were the stalwarts. We tried this site to compare with a nearby site on the outer dune; that team of Gallo & Dugan (last year's teammates) bested us, and had close views of a rare Yellow Rail, which we were unable to relocate. Surprisingly we saw only 1 Monarch butterfly this day. We'll be back next year!

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Weather: AM.Calm mostly clear become breezy. PM Cloudy and breezy

Location: Litchfield, CT - White Memorial Foundation near Little Pond

Time At Location: 0440 to 1030 and 1600 to 1830hrs.

Awesome predawn morning with 4 owl species and thrush flight including 4 species. Unfortunately the breeze started around 8:30am and continued throughout the day around 10-15 MPH from the NNW with cloudy skies.

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Weather: overcast early am then clearing, temp 56, wind nw 5-15mph

Location: West Chester, PA

Time At Location: 0645-1830

also counted 13 helium balloons through the day.

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Weather: mostly clear, 55-65 degrees, calm to light winds

Location: Mann Lake, Nez Perce County, Idaho

Time At Location: 7:20 AM - 10:50 AM

A beautiful morning at Mann Lake. I could not get to the same spot as last year's "sit" but was close and a bit higher (near the inlet settling ponds). This is perhaps a better spot anyway. I had 30 species in the first hour, 10 in the second hours, and 10 in the last 1.5 hours. My first bird was a Common Loon (seen by others the day before) which left as I was watched it. My last bird was a Greater White-fronted Goose in w/ the Canadas which I had missed up to that point! Highlights: a stunning Peregrine which appeared on the south side of the lake, slowly circled up and then dissapeared to the southwest; a single flyby Sanderling (very uncommon here); 4 Mountain Chickadees which have been present here for several weeks. Major miss was Norther Flicker (landbirds were scarce in overall). A very pleasant morning.

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Weather: Partly to mostly sunny. Wind 0-5 mph. 45-55F

Location: Deception Pass St. Pk., Washington State

Time At Location: 7:30AM to 4:15 PM

This was the first Big Sit for either of us. While we had a good time, we didn't quite make 50 species which I had hoped to. Lack of shorebirds and dabbling ducks was the main cause. At least we did get one species I noticed was missing from the N. American Big Sit results last year: Pacific Loon. Within a couple of months there will be hundreds of loons feeding at this spot!

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Weather: clear, sunny, very light wind, 80's

Location: Sandling Beach swim beach in Sandling Beach Recreation Area at Falls Lake State Recreation Area, north of Raliegh, NC

Time At Location: 530-1030

Very early Lesser-black Backed Gull, suprise Foster's Tern. All Gulls and Tern chased Bald Eagle's when they flew by. 3 each Great Horned and Eastern Screech Owls calling across the lake. A Great Blue Heron flying across lake, dove head first to catch a fish like a pelican.

Anecdotes:

Set up near main parking lot overlooking swim beach, had several park visitors stop by for a quick talk on what a Big Sit was. One birder from Colorado spent a few hours hoping and then seeing a Bald Eagle. Had a large dry erase board on easel with the days sightings recorded on it.

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Weather: Low clouds with temperature of mid 40's. Some wind from the North blowing down the Lake.

Location: Rickey Point along the shoreline of Lake Roosevelt 5 miles south of Kettle Falls, Washington.

Time At Location: 0845 to 1245.

This turned out to be one of those cold, low cloud mornings with the birds not moving much at all. The Lake had a chop on it for about the first 3 hours, and the sun didn't come out until we were about to leave. Waterfowl were probably loafing in protected bays not exposed to the wind like Rickey Point was on this morning.

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Weather: Mostly clear, High 83, Low 74, winds N/NE 8-12 mph diminishing

Location: Private balcony on Matagorda Bay front, Port O'Connor, Texas

Time At Location: 24 hours with numerous breaks, some long

A few passerine migrants were on the move especially swallows. Ruby-throated hummingbirds were still present in fair numbers providing plenty of company throughout the day at the numerous feeders that were out. The high tide was not something that was needed as it covered much of the prime shorebird habitat and sea grasses most of the day. This was compounded by the northeast wind which blew additional water to this bay front as well.

Anecdotes:

The hope was that the lush neighboring yards would provide numerous passerine migrants. They may have well done so but 3 of the 5 neighbors chose this day do mow at various times of the day. For all intents and purposes this pretty much sent any small migrants packing to quieter yards out of sight. 31 Monarch Butterflies were counted passing over and a real treat was a Zilpa Longtail (Chioides zilpa) discovered the day before the Sit in a private butterfly garden at he Big Sit location. It was still present on Sit day. It may well be a first Central Texas Coast record. A gorgeous day to do something this enjoyable.

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Weather: partly cloudy 70ºF 10mph wind

Location: 9001 Apache Dr. Weldon, California, USA

Time At Location: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on and off

First time yard birds - Cooper's Hawk, Violet-green Swallow, California Towhee, and Pine Siskin. Pine Siskin seems irruptive this year. Eleven were vying for spot on the thistle feeder. They were being particularly aggressive, chasing off house finch and lesser goldfinch.

Anecdotes:

I could only sit when I wasn't doing house chores. Days off are few and far between. I am sure several species were missed.

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Weather: Cool, overcast, rain, and windy!

Location: Red Slough Wildlife Management Area near Haworth, Oklahoma.

Time At Location: 7 hours.

Very few birds were active in this weather except for an amazing number of migrating swallows, mostly Barns, passing by our platform all morning. Also noted among them were a few Tree and Northern Rough-wingeds. The only real notable bird of the day was an adult male Merlin carrying prey in its talons that landed in a dead snag nearby.

Anecdotes:

We could only take so much of it! Berlin Heck, Mike Dillon and I attempted the "Big Sit" at Red Slough today but the wind and rain tormented us the whole time getting worse and worse as the day progressed. Drenching wet (at least I was) and with an embarrassingly small list of birds, we were forced to quit around 1:30 p.m. after enduring the constant deluge for about 7 hours. After the great success we have had with "Big Sits" the past three years we finally met our "Waterloo" this year with only 36 species!

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Weather: sunny

Location: S. 10222 Lakehurst Dr. Medical Lake WA

Time At Location: 2 hours

The weather was 60 degrees and sunny. This Sit site was backyard feeders

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Weather: Clear, sunny, 85+ afternoon

Location: Hugh Ramsey Nature Park, Harlingen, Texas

Time At Location: 6:30 am - 8:00 pm

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Weather: partly cloudy, calm, 60 to 75 degrees F.

Location: observation deck at Granby Park, Columbia, SC

Time At Location: 7:05 AM to 4:05 PM

The last new species of the day was the best -- Olive-sided Flycatcher seen well for two minutes in a nearby dead snag. Unfortunately John had left just a half hour before.

Anecdotes:

This is our third Big Sit at this location. We found 48 species in 2000 and 46 species in 2003, so 50 species is a new record. Here are the species that we got in previous years but missed this time: Green Heron, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, House Wren, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, American Redstart, Eastern Towhee, White-throated Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-winged Blackbird, Baltimore Oriole. This means that in three years doing the Big Sit at Granby Park we have tallied a total of 68 species. Perhaps one year we will reach 60 species. Clearly this number is possible.

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Weather: NW winds 20 Kph, 90% clouds in am, 40% in pm; vis 40 km, 14-19 C

Location: Lighthouse Point Park

Time At Location: 10 hours

Anecdotes:

A respectable list, considering we were running around entertaining a huge crowd of hawkwatchers from Putney, VT and elsewhere, running a hawk ID work shop and manning this important coastal HMANA site. A Typical Big Sit! experience; eyes half-closed!

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Weather: 60's and 70's, partly cloudy

Location: Hawk Observation Platform, Kiptopeke State Park, tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore

Time At Location: 6:45 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. and 8:30 p.m to 9 p.m.

Nice weather, actually too nice, with no recent cold front, which really limits the early morning passerine flight. One of these years, if the Big Sit occurs right after a cold front, we could easily find 90+ species!!!!!!

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Weather: Mostly overcast with some sun breaks. Temperatures from the high 40F's to low 60F's

Location: WNY at the Canadian border near Lake Erie SE shore. Predominant habitat was meadow, old woods, roadside, cropland, farmland

Time At Location: midnight-midnight

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Weather: Mild (78F), partly overcast, steady NW winds

Location: Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant, Austin, TX

Time At Location: 12.5 hours (7:00am - 7:30pm)

As expected, the location of our circle in an open area amongst lagoons and drying beds- along with a steady NW wind- paid off in terms of raptor and waterbird numbers, but greatly hindered our passerine count.

Anecdotes:

An American Avocet decided it was a blue-winged teal and fed with the dabblers on the open water within 100 feet of the circle all day long. And in what has become a bit of a custom for the Hornsby Big Sit, the closing curtain was drawn at dusk when a Striped Skunk lumbered out of the high grasses near the circle at dusk and waddled off to the south.

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Weather: It rained lightly for a good while, misted sometimes, and at times was just cloudy.

Location: Rucker's Pond (Unit 55, Lyndon B. Johnson National Grasslands)

Time At Location: from about 9:00-11:20am

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Weather: Low 60's, Breezy, Cloudy with breaks of sun

Location: Cat Island, Milford, CT

Time At Location: 9 hours

At 6 a.m. we arrived at the path that leads us out to our circle, only to discover that someone had erected a fence, complete with a padlocked gate. After a breif discussion, our group decide that a 4 foot fence was not to ruin this day. So over the fence we went and on to our circle area. It was a Great Day! No Rain for a change. We sustained ourselves through the course of the day with-Homemade Banana Bread, Brownies and Beef Jerky. Hot Dogs and Beans were for lunch. And Hot Spiced Cider warmed us up! An Immature Red-headed Woodpecker was the bird of the day, for it is uncommon to this area and was a life bird for me.

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Weather: 75-88 degrees; winds SSW6; Humidity 13%; Partial Clouds/Sunny

Location: Water reclamation outlet cobble pond/stream area in Phoenix, AZ

Time At Location: 7 a.m. - 11 a.m.

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Weather: Clear to mostly cloudy, low to mid 60's, Windy in afternoon

Location: Stn. 43, South Windsor, Conn.

Time At Location: 5:15 AM to 4 PM

Number of species was low, with some species missing that have been seen in other years. No rain this year!

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Weather: Cloudy

Location: Back Yard

Time At Location: 24 hours

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Weather: Light north wind, 20% cloud cover, temperature 54-70 F

Location: porch of residence at 909 Bullhead Rd., Sparta, NC

Time At Location: 6:30 am - 1 pm and 3 pm - 7 pm

Delightful day with lots of close and distant birds early but no water birds onthe 8-acre pond across the road this time. Hawk migration picked up on the Blue Ridge just across the pond only after 3 pm.

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Weather: No rain this year YES! started cloudy got warm & sunny ended cloudy

Location: Head of Lake Gaillard North Branford CT

Time At Location: 9 a.m - 1:30 p.m. then back from lunch 3 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.

This is private land owned by The Regional Water Co., New Haven CT. Bill works on this lake & we had to get permission from security to sit for the day. Our most amazing sight was 6 juvenile Bald Eagles on a sand bar on the lake at the same time, it started with 2 on the bar & others in the air slowly falling it to the bar until all 6 were on it. An amazing sight for New Haven county in Connecticut.

Anecdotes:

Falling asleep in our beach chairs in the warm October sun. We would have made a great picture with our bins on lying there.

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Weather: Temperature- low: 54, High: 77 Clear - partly cloudy early am, mostly cloudy by late pm, mostly clear late pm

Location: Table Rock State Park, Pickens County, SC

Time At Location: 5 hours and 15 minutes (6:38-8:28am, 1:30-4:45pm, 10:50-11:00pm )

I was quite pleased with my species total of 38 which surpassed last year's total of 26. The early morning shift produced a good variety of birds with 27 of the 38 total species being tallied before 8:30am. Eleven more spieces were added in the afternoon. Both species of vultures appeared to be migrating through the area.

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Weather: cold early AM, turning sunny and pleasant, low 70's by PM

Location: Black Hill Regional Park, Boyds, MD

Time At Location: 11.5 hrs. (6AM-5:30 PM)

We had a great raptor day but few sparrows or ducks. Also seen were a pair of beavers, 2 Red Foxes, White-tailed Deer, and many turtles, along with a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly, and Pearl Crescent Butterfly, Least Skipper and Monarch. Fewer species than last year; we will try to sit harder next year!

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Weather: Partly cloudy, 65-75 degrees F., wind NW 6-12 mph

Location: Northern Eastern Neck Island at Eastern Neck Narrows, Rock Hall, MD

Time At Location: 6:30 AM to 4:20 PM

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Weather: morning fog, then clearing by 10:30, mostly sunny, 65 degrees F.

Location: Top of Baskett Butte in Baskett Slough NWR

Time At Location: 9 AM to 6 PM, someone there most of that time.

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Weather: Skies: Clear Wind: Light E SE Temperature: Low 40 High 68

Location: Horicon Marsh

Time At Location: 12:00 midnight to 8:30 PM

The entire 20.5 hours of the count had near perfect weather. We had thought that the light winds and clear skies would produce more birds than what we saw. Our goal was to surpass our 2003 first year total of 61 species and while we did just that, our total was not as high as we had hoped for. With only one warbler species and a few hawk and swallow species seen, our count numbers seemed at the time low, but we still ended up with 66 species for the day. Our participant numbers were also up and it seems that this Big Sit idea is catching on hear at Horicon Marsh. Can't wait for next year. If I have just one wish, I would wish for the "Golden Bird" to be something that has been seen in Wisconsin at least once! Ha! Ha! Great idea and keep this thing going.

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Weather: Sunny, mostly clear, starting with a slight offshore wind switching to an onshore early morning.

Location: Elfin Forest, Los Osos, CA

Time At Location: 5:30am - 7:00pm

Despite thick fog on the day before, we had a beautiful day on the day of the count. There was practically no land bird migration on the day of the count however, which caused us to miss several common passerine species. We missed several waterfowl for some unknown reason. The big surprise was a beautiful immature Sabine's Gull which flew right by the overlook where we counted. This was a new bird for this count - number 165 for the 8 years we have done the count.

Anecdotes:

We counted in shifts of 2 or more birders starting at 5:30am in the dark. We had 96 species by noon. The addition of new species was really slow after that. As usual, the ElfinForest was a beautiful place to count from, with the tide in the estuary pushing the shorebirds, gulls, terns, herons, and ducks back and forth below us. Virginia Rails called for most of the day in the reeds which line the edge of the bay and a California Thrasher sang in a nearby bush for much of the morning. It was really hard to leave after our shifts were done and we frequently stayed for hours after, when the circle had as many as 6 sopes at a time - pointing in all directions. Many participants shared food from chocolate cake and banana bread to fruit and drinks. What a pleasant way to spend much of a day!

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Weather: Cool & clear; low to mid fifties throughout the day

Location: The deck of our house overlooking the east end of Lk. Lemon, Unionville, Indiana

Time At Location: 4:30 a.m until 7:00 p.m.

THE highlight of the day was NELSON'S SHARP-TAILED SPARROW; other lesser highlights included 3 MERLINS, 1 AM. WOODCOCK, 2 YELLOW-B. SAPSUCKERS, 2 SWAINSON'S THRUSHES, 5 WARBLER SPP., 2 SWAMP SPARROWS, 1 ROSE-BR. GROSBEAK, 1 INDIGO BUNTING, 1 E. MEADOWLARK, and 3 PINE SISKINS. In our 9th year, our total of 72 species was 2 shy of our record of 75 species in 2002. Our cumulative species total is now 120.

Anecdotes:

In early afternoon, at the beginning of the birding doldrums, Sandy Belth and Susan Hengeveld took a canoe ride out to the flats to see if there were any ducks or shorebirds waiting to be flushed and counted. They walked out onto the willow islands and flushed Swamp Sparrows and a Palm Warbler, both of which we were able to see from the deck. As Susan and Sandy were walking adjacent to the last patch of willows, we received a rather excited call on our radio about a NELSON'S SHARP-TAILED SPARROW. There turned out to be 2 of them out there and, with careful directions from Sandy & Susan, we were finally able to see one from within the count circle on the deck. A couple of other groups also went out in canoes and were able to see at least one of the Sharp-tails, and for a couple of people, it was their life NSTS.

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Weather: mostly-partly cloudy, very light wind SSW. 52 F at start.

Location: center of backyard at 70 Emerson St, East Forest Park, Springfield

Time At Location: 0715-1400

Most surprising birds were 4 ravens (new yard bird) high up headed SE. House Finch, mockingbird singing in a.m.; Song Sparrow briefly gave rough song. other animals: gray squirrel, spring peeper (calling)

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First year of count. Weather was not great for migration but still had a few hawks and warblers moving.

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Weather: Clear

Location: Buck Creek State Park near Springfield, Ohio

Time At Location: 6:55 AM - 6:30 PM

We started at about 6:55 AM with clear skies and very little wind. There was just a little fog over the mudflats early but it cleared and the weather was beautiful all day. We had some wind from the north in the afternoon. We had observers present until 6:30 PM. The temperature ranged from about 40 to 69 degrees Fahrenheit.