Good morning all,
 The Woodbinoculars team for this years Big Sit consisted of myself and my wife Nancy and daughter Alli ( and Peanut), and we were joined by Bob Ringler (and Skippy) as well. Alli and I started around 5:30 AM, one of the benefits of doing a Big Sit from home. At around 6 AM, after playing a recording of screech owl, we got a response, and eventually the bird came in to perch in one of our front yard trees and was calling continuously for about 15 minutes, when it slowly moved off. First bird of the day and it was also a new species for our Big Sit!  Sweet!

The morning progressed slowly till around 8:30 or so when things began to warm up (literally and figuratively). We saw almost all of the "normal" species which we get on this count, missing only a few species like Cedar Waxwing, and Pileated Woodpecker, both of which are hit or miss. We had a flyby Yellow-bellied Sapsucker ( FOS here) and another later in the day which perched in the yard and offered great scope views. Bob's expert eyes picked up 3 other new species for the count, Pine Warbler, Tennessee Warbler (which I didn't get on in time so can't count for my yard list), and a Savannah Sparrow which was perched on the roof right above us before it flew off into the yard! Alli picked out a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, new for the count, which appeared again for all to see as it hover-gleaned in the meadow. 

Other birds included Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, lots of bluebirds and Chipping Sparrows, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Chimney Swifts in fairly good numbers, Carolina Wren (where was the House Wren of the previous day?), American Robins, and dwindling numbers of Blue Jays, along with Downy, Red-bellied and N. Flickers.

Raptors were a bit slow to appear, and we had a hard time finding Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks after hearing and seeing Red-shouldered  Hawk early. Vultures too were slow to appear but by late morning we added a Black Vulture as our final species for the day, #39. After Bob left about 11:15, Alli and I tried valiently most of the afternoon for number 40, but it didn't happen. We ended at 6PM with just 39 species, but added 5 to our cumulative total, and now have a three year average of 40 (40,41, and 39).

Still, it was a spectacular day to be outside, enjoying the sunshine and company. Maybe next year we'll have a cold front move through before the Big Sit and bring us a 42 species day!

Rick Sussman
Woodbine,MD

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