UCB Big Sit Results

["Eric Huish" <poorwill_ at hotmail dot com>]

Utah County Birders 2005 Big Sit Report.

The Big Sit is like a Big Day in that the object is to tally as many bird 
species as can be seen or heard within 24 hours. The difference lies in the 
area limitation (inside a 17-foot circle) from which you can observe.

Sit Participants: Eric Huish, KC Childs, Milt Moody, Tuula Rose, Deb 
Thornton and Cheryl Peterson.

The TV weather reporters had us all believing we would be sitting in the 
rain and wind all day but to our relief we had beautiful weather.  Due to 
this year?s higher water levels we moved our circle from where we had it the 
last two years to take advantage of some mudflats which were loaded with 
shorebirds. The move gave us no practical views of the open lake so we were 
unable to get the Diving Ducks and Grebes we?ve seen in past years but the 
number of shorebirds on the mudflats (12) made up for our missing species.  
We beat our record big sit total of 53 by 2 ½ species. We saw a couple 
Western/Clark?s Grebes we couldn?t ID in the very distant lake I?m counting 
as half a species.

KC Childs and I started the sit before dawn at 6:00 A.M. We tried for owls 
and rails with no luck.  While it was still dark we were able to get a 
Black-crowned Night-Heron silhouetted against the water croaking in the 
dark, Wilson?s Snipe flying around overhead and a few calling Killdeer. As 
it got light we quickly began adding species to our list.  Milton Moody and 
Tuula Rose showed up and helped us add several birds.  We had 50 species by 
noon when Deb Thornton came by and joined the sit for a while.  The wind 
picked up in the afternoon but Tuula and I stayed to 1:30.  The last species 
added before our afternoon break was a Greater Yellowlegs (#53).  I returned 
to the circle at 5:00 and was joined by KC and Cheryl Peterson.  We added 
two more species to the list.  After KC and Cheryl left I sat until dark 
(8:00) watching the sunset and all the birds on the mudflat.

We had a great time and there was plenty of bird activity to keep us 
entertained. Especially entertaining were the two Merlins which would 
frequently zoom across the mudflat sending the thousand or so shorebirds up 
into two swirling flocks, one flock of dowitchers and one flock of peeps.  
Once the two Merlins even chased each other.  During one exciting chase the 
merlin raced after a single peep that was separated from the flock. In the 
end, with some highspeed maneuvering, the peep managed to barely escaped the 
merlin and it wasn?t until dusk that I finally saw one of the merlins with a 
kill.

Our Big Sit list total was 55 ½ species.

Gadwall
Mallard
GW Teal
RN Pheasant
PB Grebe
W/C Grebe
AW Pelican
GB Heron
Sn Egret
BCN Heron
WF Ibis
No Harrier
SS Hawk
RT Hawk
Am Kestrel
Merlin
SH Crane
SP Plover
Killdeer
Am Avocet
Gr Yellowlegs
Le Yellowlegs
Ma Godwit
Least Sandpiper
Baird?s Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
LB Dowitcher
Wi Snipe
Wi Phalarope
Fr Gull
RB Gull
Cal Gull
For Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mo Dove
B Kingfisher
Do Woodpecker
No Flicker
BB Magpie
Barn Swallow
BC Chickadee
Ma Wren
Am Robin
Eu Starling
Am Pipit
YR Warbler
Song Sparrow
WC Sparrow
DE Junco
RW Blackbird
We Meadowlark
YH Blackbird
Br Blackbird
Ho Finch
Am Goldfinch
House Sparrow


Eric Huish
Pleasant Grove UT
poorwill_@hotmail.com
801-360-8777


________________________________________________________

"Utah County Birders" web site:
         http://www.utahbirds.org/organizations/ucb/
To unsubscribe from the ucbnet:
 Send a e-mail  to:     ucbnet-request@utahbirds.org
 In message body, type:                   unsubscribe
________________________________________________________