Upcoming Event: The Big Sit!

Q:What's better than watching birds all day?

A: Well, I would say sitting on your "behindal region" and watching birds all day might be the answer.

And that, mi amigo, is where The Big Sit! comes into your life. The Big Sit is birding's most sedentary event.

But why do we need another birding event? I hear you say...

The Big Sit has many advantages of other birding events. Here are just a few:

1. Unlike most birding competitions, The Big Sit is non-competitive. Most Big Sit circles compete with themselves to beat last year's total or the circle's best-ever total of species.

2. You can do The Big Sit wherever you want to do it, as long as you stay inside of a single 17-foot diameter circle during the 24 hours of the second Sunday in October.

3. This is a worldwide event. Big Sits have been held in more than 20 countries.

4. You might be surprised how many people and how much gear and food you can fit inside a 17-foot diameter circle.

5. Oh yeah. The Big Sit is a FREE event.

Big Sitters in the Indigo Hill birding tower in 2006.

Just past the stroke of midnight on Sunday, October 12, 2008, The Big Sit will begin and during that day, more than 1,000 bird watchers will participate. Some circles will be run for all of the 24 hours—some for just a few. Birds will be tallied from Big Sit circles in backyards, in birding hotspots and even in some National Wildlife Refuges. Friends and birding colleagues will converge for the birds, the conversation, and the simple joys of being outside on a beautiful (we all hope) autumn day (in the northern hemisphere).

I'll be doing the Big Sit in the birding tower at my farm in southeastern Ohio. During the day we'll have a couple of dozen friends show up. The kitchen table will groan under the weight of the potluck food. Snacks ending in "os" (Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos) will be consumed by the pound. All manner of beverages will be consumed and the ensuing bathroom breaks will be carefully choreographed so as to maintain constant coverage in the Big Sit circle.

Scanning the afternoon skies for just one more species.

I've done Big-Sit-type birding in other places—as part of The Great Texas Birding Classic (which features a Big Sit category) and as part of The World Series of Birding (which uses The Big Sit rules and format but changed the name, for some reason, to The Big Stay). Those other events are very enjoyable, but nothing compares to the actual, real McCoy Big Sit which is held each October.

It's my favorite birding event of the year. And if we don't beat our all-time high score of 65 species this year, I'm going to try some performance-enhancing drugs in 2009.

YOU should do a Big Sit! It's easy. Just pick a birdy spot, gather some friends, register your circle on the official Big Sit website, and get ready for a great day of bird watching on October 12.

The official Big Sit website has past results, answers to frequently asked questions, places to upload your results (and photos), and lots of other info. The Big Sit! is a registered trademark of The New Haven (CT) Bird Club, the organization that formalized the Big Sit into an annual event.

The 2008 Big Sit is made possible with major technical assistance from its host, Bird Watcher's Digest, and through the generosity of The Big Sit's sponsors: Swarovski Optik NA, Wild Bird Centers of America, and Alpen Optics.

Happy Sitting!

Happy 30th to Bird Watcher's Digest!

The very first issue of Bird Watcher's Digest.

This month is the 30th anniversary of the first issue of Bird Watcher's Digest. My parents started the magazine in our living room after a family meeting at which all five of us Thompsons agreed we'd sink every cent of our money into this magazine idea. I was heading into 10th grade which meant that all my college savings was going to be spent on this new venture. I was already enough of a bird watcher to know that this was a really cool thing my parents were trying.

Things evolved quickly thereafter.

My dad quit his job as director of development at Marietta College. We turned the front parlor of our house on Warren Street in Marietta into the magazine's office. We subscribed to a newspaper clipping service to help us find out who was writing about birds. Every time we'd find a regular newspaper column about birds and nature, we'd put a pin in the wall map in the office to indicate it. Within three months we'd found 500 regular bird and nature columnists and we knew there was enough interest and enough content out there that this magazine just might fly.

Elsa Thompson and Bill Thompson, Jr., founding publishers of Bird Watcher's Digest.

For the launch, we mailed out sample issues to possible subscribers and to the newspaper columnists and got a surprisingly encouraging return. Going through the reader mail a few months later, my dad was astonished to find a three-page, single spaced letter from Roger Tory Peterson in Old Lyme, Connecticut offering compliments about the magazine's content and advice about its direction. Also enclosed was his check for $7 for a year's subscription.

You can't imagine how this bit of good fortune buoyed our spirits.

Soon the office expanded like The Blob into the adjoining rooms and the kitchen, where my mom kept the subscription records, hand-written on 3x5 cards, next to the counter where she cooked. Early BWD subscribers were kind enough not to complain when their renewal notices arrived with a smear of butter or ketchup on them.

We've come a LONG way since then. Dad (BT2) is retired now but still stops by to rattle our cages every week. Mom (Elsa) still answers the phones and handles subscriber issues. Brother Andy is the publisher and handles much of the business end of things. My sister Laura is BWD's circulation director. And I am the edytur, a job which I've managed to keep for more than two decades now (ain't nepotism a wonderful thing?).

I'll post a bit more about BWD's history in the coming weeks. Right now I've got to go—the Marietta Chamber of Commerce is having a reception here at our offices tonight and I've got to return the rental backhoe I used to clean my office.

Tomorrow night we're hosting an open house for all BWD subscribers living within 100 miles or so. If you'd like to stop by for a chin wag and a glass of sangria, please do. Or if you can't make it, but you're nostalgic for the old days of the magazine, just say the word and I'll have Mom smear some mayo on your next renewal notice.

New River Adventure

The delightfully lovely New River, viewed from our campsite.


Our pals the Heeters in Fayetteville, WV invited us along on a river float/camping adventure on the New River. We know Geoff and Kyle from The New River Birding Festival, of which Geoff is a co-founder. They are old hands at whitewater rafting, having both migrated to the area, famous for its wild rivers, to become rafting guides. This trip would be on relatively calm waters—two days of rafting with a night of camping thrown in. Julie was busy with an illustration project, so the kids and I loaded up the van and headed south to the hills.

We caught a minor league baseball game in Charleston on Sunday night—more about that (possibly) in a future post—and stayed overnight on the Heeters' farm after the game. The two young Heeters and the two young Thompsons (boys and girls the same age) get along famously. It's nice when you can let the village raise your children.

Monday morning, instead of heading off to work, we loaded rafts and life jackets and coolers and tents and far too much other stuff into two vehicles and headed off to the river. Along the way we picked up some other friends' kids and one other adult, Katie, and began the long, complicated process of changing from land-based to water-borne creatures.

Raft #2 in our expedition, with Katie's dog Cannonball about to re-board the craft.

The rafts are large, heavy plastic or rubber crafts, designed to float high and to withstand the rocks and beaches of a sometimes-angry river. We ran several rapids during the two days, but the New was low and clear, so we did not encounter anything that was truly scary.

In the New River Gorge you are often far from civilization—or at least civilization and its comforts are not easily within reach. No cell signals. Too wet for the laptop. If you bring a camera it needs to travel in a dry bag or in a water-tight case.

Geoff talked me out of bringing my binoculars.

"When was the last time you spent a day without binoculars?" he asked me.

I had to think. It's been a long time.

It was a big relief to have no expensive gear to worry over. I did take my pocket digital camera.
Did I miss the binocs? Only twice—when distant birds were not ID-able with the naked eye. Otherwise, I enjoyed a more "whole-istic" view of the river and the gorge.

Floating down the river was true bliss. We told stories, jokes, sang goofy songs, and also spent a fair amount of time (kids included!) just "being"—sitting in quiet contemplation. The river's motion and sounds have that effect.

Phoebe and Liam surprised me with their willingness to raft or swim through rapids, to jump off of rocks into the water, and to revert to being nature creatures, released from the grip of Webkinz and TV and e-mail.

Thompson kids ready to run the river.

We slept on a sandy beach in our tent. We ate hobo-style meals squatting around a fire. We fished (both kids loved that)!

It was a really nice change of channel. Thanks Kyle & Geoff!

Some photographic evidence:

I caught you a delicious bass.

Lunch spot on Day 2.

Shooting the rapids with Liam.

Some say Bigfoot still roams in the New River Gorge. It's the hairless race, I'm told.

The kids built a fort and defended it against all comers (adults).

Kids at play in mid-river. Phoebe relaxes on a warm rock.

Kyle and Geoff our hosts and guides.