Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Big Sit on October 11

The Big Sit is coming up on Sunday, October 11 and this year I'll be participating and representing our neighborhood. What is it? The Big Sit is an annual birding event to see how many species of birds you can see or hear from one spot in one day. The spot is a stationary circle 17 feet across, and you have to see or hear all the birds from inside that circle. My circle is going to be on Lake Creek Trail at a bend in the creek by the last dam downstream of the T&C playing fields. The picture above shows the exact spot I picked and clicking on it will take you to a Google map.

Picking your circle is very important. The more kinds of good bird habitat you can see from your circle, the more species of birds are possible. My spot has good views of shallow water and deep water, woods, grassland, and open sky. Since I've been birding here I've recorded 86 species of birds just in October, so I'm hoping to see 60 species for the Big Sit, and maybe even 70!

People all over the country are registering their circles on the Bird Watcher's Digest web site, and so far Texas has the most, including my circle (named "Birding on Broadmeade" of course). You can see them all here. If you'd like to join me, come on out. I'll be there all day! (I suggest parking by the Parmer Village model homes, and walking about a quarter mile down the trail to my spot.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is going to be fun. I can't wait. I bet we see lots of birds. You picked a really good spot for the circle, Mikael.