Big Sit at Congaree Bluff HP

["Robin Carter" <rcarter@sc.rr.com>]

Yesterday (Sunday, 15 Oct 2001) members of the Columbia Audubon Society sat
the Big Sit at the Congaree Bluff Heritage Preserve hawk watch site near
Fort Motte in Calhoun County, SC. The sitters included Robin Carter,
Caroline Eastman, Parkin Hunter, Heidi Hoerman, and Lloyd Moon. Caroline and
I were present from 6:00 AM until 2:00 PM, when the weather got very
threatening as the cold front passed.

The high winds all day long hindered us from finding many small birds, so
our total Big Sit list is rather short, but we did have a pretty good hawk
watch.

First here are the hawk watch numbers, which includes only those birds which
seemed to me to be migrating. (We also saw several other local vultures and
Red-shouldered Hawks):

Black Vulture -- 27
Turkey Vulture -- 4
Osprey -- 1
Bald Eagle -- 2 (one immature and one adult)
Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 11
Cooper's Hawk -- 3
Accipiter species -- 2
Red-tailed Hawk -- 1
Merlin -- 1 (our first ever at the hawk watch. It flew right over our heads
just above the tree tops!)

Here is our Big Sit list:

Double-crested Cormorant
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Wood Duck
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Merlin (a very good bird anywhere in central South Carolina)
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Chimney Swift
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
White-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Hooded Warbler
Summer Tanager
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Common Grackle

This gives us a total of 38 species for the Big Sit.

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
rcarter@sc.rr.com