Evening all,
 Alli and I spent the morning perched on our swiveling deck chairs for our second annual Woodbine Big Sit. I was out on deck first, between 6 and 7 AM before Alli arrived, and I had my first species around 6:20, a Great Horned Owl which called periodically until about 6:45. First bird was also a new bird for our cumulative list, an auspicious sign! Most activity, as with all Big Sits, occured before 9 AM, and we recorded our last species just before noon (Broad-winged Hawk, 2, also new for our cumulative list!). We saw (or heard) 41 species, breaking last years 40 by one species. We had 6 new species for our list, the two mentioned previously, plus Song Sparrow, Northern Harrier, Purple Finch (brownie), and Great Blue Heron. Our only real "big miss" were Bald Eagle and A.Kestrel. Last year we also had Belted Kingfisher, but they're rather rare here anyway. We saw several Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, ditto Chimney Swifts, loads of bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings, at least 8 Sharp-shinned Hawks, but only 2 Coops. We had only a single Yellow-rumped Warbler and a few E. Phoebes as well as loads of Blue Jays and Robins.

My favorite sighting was the harrier, as it flew low over our house coming from the north heading south in perfect mid-morning light. We finished by 12:30.

Rick Sussman
Woodbine,MD