Big Sit at Fort Tilden - 10th Oct

Columbus Day weekend is the date for a sedentary bird race known as The Big Sit. The rules are pretty straightforward. Choose a spot, count every bird you can see or hear for a 24 hour period. The winner gets.... a big cake or something, I didn't catch that bit. The Queens Bird Club chooses the viewing platform at Fort Tilden, an excellent spot. This is the second year that QBC has participated.

Best birds for me were Royal Tern fishing offshore, several Blackpoll Warbler passing through and great views of both Sharp-shinned and Coopers Hawks. A total of 76 birds were seen, beating last year's score of 74. Today's list in full.

Brant (2500)
Mute Swan
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Green-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Black Scoter
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Sanderling
Dunlin
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (1000+)
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Grey Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (300)
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Dickcissel (Heard only)
Bobolink (Heard only)
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Great Blue Heron, with the canyons on lower Manhattan in the background

The rules are simple, for a bird to count it has to be seen by someone on the platform