The first Big Sit in Chicago history occurred today.  And the
participants, Ann and Paul Johnson from Des Moines, Iowa and Kate
and Jim Frazier lived to tell the story.

Ann and Paul (AJ and PJ) rolled into town yesterday afternoon. 
As soon as they got out of their car in front of our house, we
kind of dropped hints that there might be a state bird for AJ
over at Fermilab - a LeConte's Sparrow has been consistently seen
there all week.  When she heard it would also be a lifer for both
Kate and I, she said "Let's go."

So we all flashed over to Fermilab, dragging poor non-birding PJ
in tow and followed the directions to the first site, near AE
Sea.  No LeConte's there so we went to the second reported site. 
As we're walking along, peering into the brush whenever we saw a
sparrow, Kate spent a little extra time studying one sparrow,
then asked AJ to render her opinion.  I got on it as well and we
all came to the conclusion that it was, indeed, a LeConte's
Sparrow.  And it insisted on coming closer to us to give us
better views.  Only after we had sufficiently praised it did it
vamoose.  High fives were all around with PJ standing over to one
side, shaking his head about these wacky birders. 

On Sunday morning, we arrived at dawn at Montrose harbor which is
about halfway between the Loop and Evanston.  This is a prime
birding spot in Chicago and we were going to figure out how it
was for a Big Sit.

We discussed each of the spots that Kate and I had scouted out
previously and determined that the spot kinda close to the hedge,
but with some view of the lake would be the most satisfactory. 
We planted ourselves, organized our provisions and went to work. 
 

The first birds were:

MERLIN
RING-BILLED GULL
HERRING GULL
BROWN CREEPER
AMERICAN ROBIN
EUROPEAN STARLING
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER
RUFOUS-SIDED TOWHEE
COMMON GRACKLE
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH
HOUSE SPARROW

Then we had some help from other birders who found birds for us
which we were then able to see from inside the circle:

AMERICAN KESTREL
AMERICAN PIPIT
CEDAR WAXWING
RUSTY BLACKBIRD

PJ contributed a ROCK DOVE.

Other birds that turned up during the morning were:

DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT
BONAPARTE'S GULL
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
DOWNY WOODPECKER
AMERICAN CROW
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET
HERMIT THRUSH
AMERICAN TREE SPARROW
CHIPPING SPARROW
SONG SPARROW
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
EASTERN MEADOWLARK
HOUSE FINCH

One of the attractions for this location was the high potential
for ducks.  However, since the weather was so delightful,
obviously the birding wasn't the best, particularly for ducks. 
We had, early on, a fly over of unidentified ducks.  We counted
them as ducks, sp. 

Finally, some MALLARDS flew over and we had our real ducks.

AJ spotted a few MUTE SWANS out in the lake and we had a couple
of  CANADA GEESE pass through.  A BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER whistled
overhead.

By lunch time, things had really slowed down.  There weren't even
any birders left, just a parade of fisherman to and from the
lake.  AJ was trying to track down a wren and a couple of
sparrows but she couldn't coax them to a point where they could
be seen from the circle.  However, she was paying very close
attention to the chip notes from a SWAMP SPARROW.  Then she
hustled back to the circle and heard them, giving us our 37th and
final bird.

We decided to chase the Kelp Gull that was seen yesterday down in
Hammond, Indiana.  Nice drive, no luck.

Some thoughts on Big Sits. 

This is MY kind of birding.  Some delightful company, some comfy
lawn chairs and convenient food.  It's a much different kind of
birding, where you wait for the birds to come to you.  It forces
some interesting uses of optics.  Observing kinglets through a
scope is interesting.  Or trying to spot that Rusty Blackbird
through a tree that's in the way, even though you can easily see
it by moving 20 feet to the left (but outside of the circle).

We brought along the reclining lawn chair for Kate and, snuggled
in her stadium blanket, it was all I could do to keep her from
napping.  That is, when I wasn't snoozing myself.  You just don't
get napping opportunities in the normal course of birding. 

It also gives you a different perspective.  We arrived at 7:15am
and didn't leave until around 12:30pm.  We got to observe some
timing of the birds.  For example, we saw creepers early, but not
after about 8am.  The chickadees and downies didn't start up
until after about 10am.   We enjoyed the antics of a squirrel
that apparently owned the tree that we were camped near.  He
seemed very interested in our muffin and cookie supply. 

One piece of advice for serious sitters - restrooms.  Consider
their availability when you choose your site.  The public
oriented Chicago Park District evidently decided that, after
October 15th, no one uses the park and therefore they lock up the
restrooms for the season.  The magic hedge found other uses this
morning besides providing some cover for birds.

Next year, we get the portable table, Weber grill, campstove,
rent a camper for the bathroom, and gee, do you think Lazy Boys
would be too decadent?

Jim Frazier

10.20.96

For another version of this event, see AJ's report.