Hello Tweeters,
After reading Mike's report about the Big Sit that he did, I thought I should report on the Big Sit that we did in Discovery Park last Saturday. This was our fourth year at Discovery park in Seattle.

http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/connect/bigsit/index.php

We do it at the South Bluff at the park. The first year we had 40 species which I thought was pretty good. Last year we had perfect weather, sunny and a breeze out of the north. We had some good migrants and had 56 species. Kathy and Arn Slettebak, my wife Carleen and I got there early and spent the day in a 17 ft diameter circle. We ended up with 38 species which was pretty good considering the weather. I have pasted the report that I made to Bird Watcher's Digest



Weather: Windy and showers, 60's

Location: South Bluff, Discovery Park, Seattle, WA

Time At Location: 6:00 am to 4:00 Pm

We got to the park early with hopes of seeing a Barn Owl hunting the meadow. No such luck. The first bird of the day was a Bald Eagle soaring along the bluff. We slowly started adding to our list as the sun came up. Carleen spotted a distant Northern Shrike sitting on top of a bush. It spent most of the day hunting from the same perch. Mid-morning a flock of about 20 Evening Grosbeaks stopped by and fed on a nearby Big Leaf Maple. The flock stopped by several times during the day to give us nice looks. A pair of Red-tails spent most of the day riding the strong wind coming up off the bluff. Early afternoon, the showers slowed down enough so we could ID the water birds on the Puget Sound. We were able to pick up some Harlequin Ducks, Horned and Western Grebes, Surf Scoters and Rhino Auklets. A Cooper?s Hawk cruised by a couple of times and a late afternoon appearance of a Northern Harrier gave us some excitement. The wind and rain kept the birds hunkered down. We got a good list in spite of the weather. It was one of those days where a distant call of a wren brought a cheer from the group.


The Puget Sound went through the driest spell in history this fall. That spell ended the day before we did our sit. We were huddled for a large part of the day under a canopy trying to stay dry. It was one of those days where we would look at each other and wonder what we were doing there. But if you are reading this, you already know.




Neil Zimmerman

Brier, WA

n3zims at comcast.net