This Year’s Big Sit Results in Big Numbers

The Big Sitters: From left, Jim Dugan, Nick Bonomo, Frank Gallo, Tom Murray, and Patrick Dugan. Photo by Keith Thomas.

Frank Gallo spent the day recently with five of his friends stationed on an observation platform at the Milford Point Coastal Center, where he is associate director, counting birds to raise money for the Center. Their efforts have brought in more than $2,000; you can help by making a tax deductible donation here.

Here’s Frank’s account of the day:

Well, on Sunday, October 12, 2014, we had the most amazing day I’ve seen in 21 years of doing the Big Sit! The weather set up perfectly; a front cleared on Saturday afternoon bringing north/northeast winds overnight and through the morning. Birds moved Saturday night and we had a great pre-dawn and dawn flight of migrants. Thrushes were going over calling before first light and songbirds and raptors were streaming through all morning. The winds shifted to the east then south/southwest in the afternoon and we had a nice push off ducks, loons, and grebes in the late afternoon. The tide was low in the morning and high at 3 p.m. so we saw a lot of shorebird and wader movement in and out of the marsh during the day.

The grand total for the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Surf Scopers was an astonishing 117 species! This eclipses our previous high of 107 set in 2010. To put things in perspective, our 20-year average is 78 species, and the last 10-year’s average is 89 species.

I want to thank all my teammates, Jim and Patrick Dugan, Nick Bonomo, Jake Musser, Tom Murray, and all the folks who lent a hand… Michael Carpenter kept us going with a well-timed and appreciated coffee and donuts delivery. Tom left for a bit, only to return with a hot pizza mid-afternoon!! Wow, was that good. Keith Thomas and Carol Cantrell, Daniel Field, Jackie Eaton and the gang, thanks for stopping to say hi and lending a hand, too!  George, what can I say! Thank you, too. Our teammates Tina Green and Frank Mantlik were away this year, but they were with us in spirit.

Highlights included: A mid-sized owl (Long or Short-eared – think Short-eared for our friend who made the $50 challenge pledge) – that flew by the tower just before dawn, an American Bittern, Pine Siskins and Common Ravens calling before dawn, our first Veery, Gray-cheeked, Swainson’s and Hermit Thrushes, our first Brown Thrasher, White-crowned, Chipping, Field, Lincoln’s and more than 40 Nelson’s Sparrows, Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos, Pectoral and White-rumped Sandpipers, a Bonaparte’s Gull, early Horned and Red-necked Grebes … and the list goes on. One of the first birds we saw at dawn was a Bald Eagle flying across the marsh! Our last new birds were an early Red-necked Grebe migrating west, and a pair of Black Scoters flying east late in the day.

We thank all who pledged this year to support the Coastal Center. Thank you one and all!! If you haven’t made a donation, it is not too late. Click here.

Thanks again!!!

Frank Gallo and the Surf Scopers