Preparing to Sit

It's time to lug the optics, field guides, heating pads, and bags of Cheetos up to the birding tower here at Indigo Hill (and vacuum up all the dead ladybugs up there.) This Sunday, October 14, is the 2007 Big Sit! an event that gets major play around Indigo Hill. You can do your own Big Sit, too!

We're gearing up, revving up, making the chili (if you eat it before 3 pm, your fellow Sitters will suffer), and hoping today's cold front does not chase away the last hummingbird, indigo bunting, or lingering brown thrasher. But we simultaneously hope the cold front does bring in a few juncos, Lincoln's sparrows, northern finches, and migrant hawks.

The all-time Big Sit record for Indigo Hill is 65 species. Last year we had 63. This year we must break the record! The birding gods have been offered all manner of tribute, incantation, and sacrifice...


It all starts at midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning and goes until the last Cheeto is crunched on Sunday night. Sure, it's not the birdiest time of year for us (not even close), and the weather could completely stink, but it's a tradition, dude! And there's no stopping us.

I'll offer a post or two during the action on Sunday just to keep those interested parties among you in the loop. And at the end of the day, if we've broken the record, I'll hoist a frosty cold one with shouts of joy and exaltation. Heck I'll do that even if we only get 35 species.

But right now I've got to find my lucky birding sweatshirt...can't imagine a Big Sit without it.