Behrens Manor Big Sit #2 and City Nature Challenge

April 24 through April 27 was the iNaturalist worldwide City Nature Challenge. iNaturalist encourages different metropolitan areas around the world to try and submit as many nature observations of as many different species as possible, and promotes a friendly competition between them. This year the focus was less on the competition and more on the joy of finding nature close to home. As part of the challenge I decided to do another Big Sit in my yard (a birding game to see how many species you can hear or see in one spot in one day). I also promoted it a little bit on FaceBook, to try and see if anyone else around the state would be interested in doing one during the same time window. I did the big sit on Saturday, April 25 and here are some highlights.

I got started at about 5:45 AM and took this selfie at about 6:15 when there was finally enough light for my iPhone's camera to work. There were still a few stars in the sky:



Unfortunately I did not hear any owls or other night birds in the predawn dark. Purple Martins were the first birds I recorded. They were already up in the sky hunting and singing at 5:53 AM. From then until 6:45 AM I heard most of the expected year-round resident songbirds start to sing and got up to 11 species.

Then it was light enough for more birds to start flying and I started getting some interesting flyovers. Summer resident Chimney Swifts twittered and flew back and forth. I was able to get this photo of one:





Small groups of lingering winter-resident Cedar Waxwings and north-bound migrant Dickcissels flew over for the next hour or so. These are the only images I was able to capture. These Cedar Waxwings are just barely identifiable:



And you'll just have to trust me that this was a Dickcissel, making its diagnostic flight call as it flew over my yard:



I was hoping for more migrating songbirds besides the Dickcissels, and at around 8:15 I got one. A lone Wilson's Warbler showed up and spent some time foraging in my backyard. Here's the best photo I could get of this north-bound migrant:



By 10:00 AM I was up to 39 birds when a mixed-species foraging flock of songbirds showed up in the backyard. Two Orange-crowned Warblers in this flock took me up to 40. Like last time, this mixed flock was making some kind of circuit and visited my yard 2 or 3 times over the next couple hours. Each time it visited I tried my best to find a new species of bird in it. I was able to pick out a couple Nashville Warblers on their way north, and this beautiful lingering Blue-headed Vireo that was singing as it foraged:



Blue-headed Vireos are winter residents in central Texas, and we only get to hear their song briefly in the spring before they head north.

The last new species I was able to find in this flock was this first-year Black-throated Green Warbler. I found it at 11:24 AM and it brought my species list up to 42, tying my last big sit!



Then I took a break for lunch and the new species stopped. Then afternoon was pleasant enough but mostly uneventful. I spent most of the time watching the open sky and thinking about how different birds use it. For many songbirds the open sky is dangerous. They're built for slow maneuvering in dense foliage, so in the open sky most songbirds are sitting ducks to falcons and accipiters. That's why many migratory songbirds migrate at night. For other birds the open sky is where they live most of their lives. Swallows and swifts fly all day long, catching insects out of the "aerial plankton." Vultures and hawks use the open sky to cover long distances while searching for prey on the ground. Some hawks and falcons and kites also hunt in the sky like the swallows and swifts. (The swallows and swifts are such deft fliers they don't worry too much about the hawks and falcons, and sometimes chase these much larger birds!)

While I was watching the sky two old friends checked in with me on Skype and it was nice catching up with them.

At 3:30 an accipiter soared over the yard. Even though my initial identification of it was Cooper's Hawk, I took a bunch of photos since nothing else much of interest had happened lately. A few days later, looking at these photos I honestly didn't know if this bird was a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Here's the best of my poor photos of this high-flying bird:



Opinions on iNaturalist are mixed. If this bird was a Sharp-shinned, then my bird list would have 43 species on it! If it's a Cooper's Hawk it would stay at 42, tying my previous effort.

My Big Sit only lasted about another hour. Shortly after this accipiter flew by, neighbors' leaf blowers, lawn mowers, weed whackers, and a circular saw finally drove me inside where I rested my eyes and later had a nice dinner.

Here's my final bird list for the day:

No.	Species	Time
1	Purple Martin - could it be flying already?	5:53 AM
2	White-winged Dove	5:58 AM
3	Blue Jay	6:19 AM
4	Carolina Wren	6:20 AM
5	Northern Cardinal	6:22 AM
6	Carolina Chickadee	6:28 AM
7	Black-crested Titmouse	6:29 AM
8	Common Grackle	6:35 AM
9	Bewick’s Wren	6:39 AM
10	American Crow	6:40 AM
11	Great-tailed Grackle	6:42 AM
12	Chimney Swift	6:46 AM
13	Cedar Waxwing	6:48 AM
14	Northern Mockingbird	6:51 AM
15	Great Crested Flycatcher	6:52 AM
16	American Robin	6:53 AM
17	Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	6:56 AM
18	Dickcissel	6:57 AM
19	House Finch	7:01 AM
20	Yellow-rumped Warbler	7:07 AM
21	European Starling	7:10 AM
22	Red-shouldered Hawk	7:16 AM
23	Blue-headed Vireo	7:20 AM
24	Broad-winged Hawk	7:25 AM
25	Barn Swallow	7:36 AM
26	Red-winged Blackbird	7:40 AM
27	Cooper’s Hawk	7:44 AM
28	Ruby-crowned Kinglet	7:50 AM
29	Red-bellied Woodpecker	7:53 AM
30	Mississippi Kite	8:10 AM
31	Wilson’s Warbler	8:15 AM
32	hummingbird sp.	8:23 AM
33	Turkey Vulture	8:25 AM
34	Mourning Dove	8:28 AM
35	Cliff Swallow	8:40 AM
36	Ladder-backed Woodpecker	8:43 AM
37	Lesser Goldfinch	9:18 AM
38	Black Vulture	9:25 AM
39	Swainson’s Hawk	9:42 AM
40	Orange-crowned Warbler	10:20 AM
41	Nashville Warbler	10:24 AM
42	Black-throated Green Warbler	11:24 AM
43	Sharp-shinned Hawk (possible)	3:30 PM

Photos from my Big Sit and the whole City Nature Challenge weekend are on Flickr here.

Not a bad way to spend a day!