It's amazing how standing on a ladder for 13 hours tires you out...

Brian Bell and I did a Big Sit at Marymoor Park in Redmond yesterday. We were
joined at various times by Michael Dossett, Mike and Diane West, by Jim McCoy,
and by my family who visited briefly around lunchtime.

The Big Sit is a fun challenge to find as many species as possible in a single
day from within a 17-foot diameter circle. I chose, for our sit, a circle in
the Marymoor Off-leash Dog Area, about 100 yards south of the main dog swimming
area (Dog Central). This spot was chosen because there are good bushes for
sparrows and finches, good looks into the slough all the way downstream to the
weir, and peek-a-boo views into the large interior meadow.

The typical Big Sit circle is probably on a knoll overlooking meadows, forest,
wetlands, a shore, or something. Big Sits work well with Big Views. Marymoor
however, at the bottom of a lake valley, *has no knolls*. So we made do with
three ladders to give us additional height and some chance of seeing into the
slough and into the meadow.

So how did we do? The weather was too nice - the birds were sleepy and the
dogs were abundant. That said, the few "misses" we had were not really
attributable to a dog invasion. We had 46 species from within the circle;
another eight species were seen in the park but outside the circle (in
parentheses below):

Pied-billed Grebe
(Western Grebe)
(American Bittern)
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
(Bufflehead)
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
(Sharp-shinned Hawk)
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail (heard)
(American Coot)
Killdeer (heard)
(Mew Gull)
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Dove
(Barn Owl) (heard)
Belted Kingfisher
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Northern Shrike
Steller's Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren (heard)
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee
(Savannah Sparrow)
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

All told, it was an excellent experience, especially getting to see the whole
day for the birds. Crows start up first in the morning, followed by robins,
then Canada Geese. But in the evening, crows and robins tuck themselves in
before it gets dark, and *then*, once it's dark, the Canada Geese head for
their night spots.

I think I want to try an all-Marymoor Big Day next, with at least three teams
simultaneously birding the park. I think, with a carefully chosen date, and
with practiced teams, we might hit 100 species in the park in one day. And
that wouldn't involve ladders.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== Hummer at isomedia.com
== http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm