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N Carolina Big Sit account (Long)



Hello folks: 
Here is a narrative of our Big Sit on October 12. We had 55 species. If 
you just want to see the bird list and skip the narrative go to the 
very end. 

Shantanu Phukan


Big Sit
Fort Fisher, Battery Buchanan

October 12, 2003


Participants: David Lenat: Raleigh, Shantanu Phukan: Carrboro, Andy 
Webb: Jacksonville

Time: 6:30 am to 6:30 pm

Weather: Cloudy morning, clearing to near full sun by 10 am, followed 
by a cloudy, breezy afternoon. Temperature in the 70=92s 

Narrative: 
As far as I know, was the first official Big Sit in the State of North 
Carolina--please correct me if I am wrong. I had planned this on a lark 
in July on a day when I was feeling particularly heat-struck. I first 
tried garnering suggestions from Carolina birders as to where the 
circle ought to be sited and although everyone agreed that the 
watchtowers at Pea Island would probably be the best site in the state 
I decided in the end to go with Fort Fisher partly because it is a 
little closer to the Triangle (where two of the three of us live) but 
mostly because I happen to love Fort Fisher and have now birded it so 
frequently that it feels like =91my=94 patch of land.

 The site I selected was the top of Battery Hill near the Ferry 
terminal at Fort Fisher. The view from up here is remarkable and the 
site is breezy, like all the surroundings. From here we had a sweeping 
view of the broad Cape Fear River behind (to the west) of us with one 
dredged spoil-island in it and The Basin (a shallow, brackish bay) in 
front of us. Separating the two is the arc of =93the rocks=94, a stone 
jetty connecting the battery to a barrier island.  Between us and the 
river was the sloping hill covered with young stands of Yaupon Holly 
draped with Smilax vines, and at the foot of the hill was a narrow band 
of a mown area of short grass giving way in the north to a thick forest 
of mostly Red Cedar. Between us and the Basin, was again short grass 
and then the dirt parking lot for boaters using the Basin. At the foot 
of the hill to the south of us was the small salt marsh which one has 
to cross to get to the Rocks. The road (Highway 421) which leads to the 
parking lot runs through some good stands of Coastal Live Oaks, and I 
had hoped that these would be visible from the hill--but they are not. 


Andy Webb and David Lenat began punctually at 6:30 and I sneaked in 
sheepishly at 7 just as a Great Egret was winging its way over the Hill 
to the Basin. As soon as it became light we could see a huge flock of 
shorebirds assembled on the rocks. We scoped them out and although I 
could make out large gray and cinnamon birds which were probably 
Willets and Godwits respectively we decided to walk out to the rocks 
for a better view. While out on the rocks we also saw Dunlin and 
Sanderlings; so, we decide to walk back to our circle to see if we 
could view them from the hill and thus add them to the list. The 
Sanderlings were invisible, and remained adamantly on the far slope of 
the Rocks=97very frustrating. However, the Oystercatchers and Turnstones 
were plainly visible from the Hill and so we added them to our list. 
Just then a Clapper Rail ran out of the salt marsh and foraged in plain 
view in the very middle of the parking lot, oblivious to the cars 
already in the lot. 

Just as the sun touched the Red Cedars to our north I scoped the trees 
and found an immature Red-headed Woodpecker which remained there very 
obligingly for about ten minutes. We could see that our downfall would 
be small passerines since there were no large deciduous trees anywhere 
in sight and the hill itself had only two gnarled Red Cedars which were 
so thick that the minute anything landed in them it became invisible. 
Small passerines did keep landing in these and though I could tell they 
were warblers I could never get them in view. Finally, two warblers did 
fly in to settle in the yaupon saplings and Andy and I saw them well 
enough to identify them as Prairies=97our only warblers of the day. We 
kept peering at the Red Cedars below us hoping for more passerines, 
especially on the many dead and dry branches; however, not a single 
Cardinal or Chickadee ever flew up or called from this forest. Indeed, 
we were afraid that we would end the day without even a Carolina Wren, 
until one finally called and ended the wren-drought that would have 
shamed us otherwise. But the many Towhees and Thrashers (not to mention 
the Painted Buntings) that I know are there in this forest never 
deigned to peek out at us. 

At ten, as the tide was surging in and drowning out the rocks and 
scaring away the fisher-folk, Andy announced that there was an 
unusually white shorebird in with the Willets on the rocks. We scoped 
it and it seemed so very white that the only possibility I could think 
of was an Avocet. David was out walking through the salt marsh at this 
point but I was so thrilled at the possibility of an Avocet=97which in 
North Carolina I have only seen at Pea Island=97that I immediately ran 
out onto the Rocks. By now the water was washing aggressively over the 
rocks, but I did manage to get close enough to clinch the Avocet which 
was sleeping, completely unperturbed by the waves washing around it. 

Just as I got back David shouted out that he had seen a Merlin in the 
distance and I cursed myself for being gone from the hill. But just as 
I was regaining the hill and ruing the Merlin I saw a Yellow-Bellied 
Sapsucker fly out from one of our two Red Cedars and disappear 
overhead, bringing our woodpecker count to four. Given the paucity of 
land birds I had certainly not counted on Sapsuckers, so this was very 
welcome. Suddenly a huge flock of Tree Swallows passed overhead and 
then, as the drought of small passerines continued, we realized that 
the Loggerhead Shrike we had seen earlier had planted itself firmly on 
the Red Cedars at the bottom of the hill and was aggressively chasing 
some small passerines which dared settle on the Cedars. Could it be 
that it was keeping small landbirds away? David thought so and all I 
can say is that it is best to agree with this hypothesis since it saves 
us all from the shame of having ended the day without even a Cardinal. 

At ten thirty, as the sun came out and I needed to take my wet socks 
off, I decided to walk down to my car to retrieve my sandals. As I did 
so I scared up a little bird from the ground which flew off uttering a 
dry rattle=97tek-tek-tek. I remember a thrill passing through me, for I 
had never heard this sound before. I should have made more of this 
thrill, as you will see in a moment; but in following the bird to where 
it had settled I somehow fixed on the idea of =91an unusual sparrow.=92 
Thus when finally I (David was again out walking the marsh in his gum 
boots and Anndy was on top of the hill) relocated the bird I focused 
entirely on its facial markings. Here it showed a very prominent 
auricular patch, a faint black malar stripe, and the remains of a black 
bib. Its nape and cheeks were a fairly vivid yellowish-brown. For a 
brief moment the word =91Longspur=92 flashed through my mind, but I 
dismissed it as unlikely and instead went back to my mental insistence 
on =91unusual sparrow.=92 Among sparrows it seemed the closest to a Lark 
Sparrow--a bird that I don=92t know very well, and could therefore 
rationalize that it must be an immature, or something. I should have 
gone with my initial thrill upon hearing its dry rattle, for that 
thrill was telling me that something was new and noteworthy. However, I 
did the lazy thing, which was to foreclose all possibilities and fix on 
one; and I felt very satisfied since a Lark Sparrow would be a state 
bird for me. I was not doing what advanced birders urge us to do: 
always expect the unexpected.  But I, who had spent many cold, blustery 
days on Dairyland Road in Orange County looking for the Lapland 
Longspurs that maddeningly hung out practically in my backyard for 
months and were visible to everyone but me, had already concluded that 
this was a bird that one only saw after one had earned it by freezing 
at least a few fingers off in bleak and featureless stubble fields. It 
could not possibly be a Longspur if it was here on a warm October day 
in my familiar Fort Fisher. And thus I almost forewent a life-bird out 
of sheer laziness, and would have gone with a strange Lark Sparrow had 
Andy not decided to pursue the matter (and the bird) further. 
Apparently after I left the circle at 3 pm he and David tracked down 
the bird and observed it again and they both emailed me in the evening. 
Thus, all three of us had a life bird. In addition to this both the 
Seaside and Nelson=92s Sharp-tailed Sparrows were lifers for Andy. David 
seemed to be the best at spotting falcons since by the end of the day 
he had seen three Peregrines fly over us. 

We kept hoping for our Cardinals, Chickadees and Thrushes and peering 
into the Red Cedar forest, but the only thing Andy and David found in 
the evening was one Brown Thrasher which finally brought our tally to 
fifty-five. The next time we do this circle we will post someone with 
falcon-eyes to just watch that Red Cedar forest, for had we got more 
landbirds we would surely have broken sixty for the Big Sit. Still, no 
day with a lifer is a bad day. Longspurs, you are mine at last after 
having eluded me all winter in my own home turf. 



1.	Brown Pelican
2.	Great Cormorant
3.	Double-crested Cormorant
4.	Great Blue Heron
5.	Great Egret
6.	Snowy Egret
7.	Tricolored Heron
8.	White Ibis
9.	Turkey Vulture
10.	Osprey
11.	Northern Harrier
12.	Merlin
13.	Peregrine Falcon
14.	Clapper Rail
15.	American Oystercatcher
16.	American Avocet
17.	Willet
18.	Marbled Godwit
19.	Ruddy Turnstone
20.	Dunlin
21.	Least Sandpiper
22.	Dowitcher sp.
23.	Ring-Billed Gull
24.	Great Black Backed Gull
25.	Herring Gull
26.	Laughing Gull
27.	Royal Tern
28.	Caspian Tern
29.	Forster=92s Tern
30.	Mourning Dove
31.	Belted Kingfisher
32.	Red-bellied Woodpecker
33.	Red-headed Woodpecker
34.	Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
35.	Northern Flicker
36.	Eastern Phoebe
37.	Loggerhead Shrike
38.	Blue Jay
39.	Fish Crow
40.	Tree Swallow
41.	Northern Rough-winged Swallow
42.	Barn Swallow
43.	Carolina Wren
44.	Northern Mockingbird
45.	European Starling
46.	Prairie Warbler
47.	Song Sparrow
48.	Nelson=92s Sharp-tailed Sparrow
49.	Seaside Sparrow
50.	*Lapland Longspur*
51.	Common Grackle
52.	Boat-tailed Grackle
53.	Red-winged Blackbird
54.	House Sparrow
55.	House Finch