The Big Sit
By Neil Zimmerman and Carleen Ormbrek Zimmerman
Field sketches by Carleen Ormbrek Zimmerman
The Big Sit is a semi-competitive annual bird-counting event that takes place the second weekend in October around the United States. It was started in 1992 by a bird club in New Haven, Connecticut that had a 17-foot diameter deck. The club decided to record the number of species they saw or heard from that deck in a single day. That is how the Big Sit parameters originated: Birders must stay within a 17-foot circle for their count. The event officially begins at midnight and runs for twenty-four hours. Presently, there are about a hundred count circles around the country.
​
Several of us who regularly bird in Discovery Park decided in 2009 to participate in the Big Sit. Along with Kathy and Arn Slettebak, we named our team "The South Meadowlarks." We decided our 17-foot circle would be located on the edge of the vast park’s South Bluff. We like that spot because it gives us three different bird habitats to observe. It overlooks Puget Sound, has a meadow, and is bordered by forest and brush. Puget Sound offers glimpses of wintering and resident seabirds.
The open meadow attracts sparrows, meadowlarks, and other flocks of birds flying overhead. The forest and brush host species like band-tailed pigeons, Cooper’s hawks, and woodpeckers. We also like the location because there is a park bench where we can sit; however, we usually stand for hours at our spotting scopes. We often wonder if we should call it "the Big Stand" instead!
Over the years, we have invited many friends to join our team. Other people running by or walking dogs would be curious as to what we were taking pictures of, mistaking our spotting scopes for cameras. We created a poster describing the Big Sit event and explained how we also accepted donations for habitat recovery projects within the park. People do leave donations and sometimes even snacks. We fondly started nicknaming the event "the Big Snack." We enjoy the birding part of the Big Sit, but the most rewarding part is being with friends and interacting with passersby.
​
We remember, in earlier years, the excitement of waking up at four a.m. to arrive at the park before sunrise. We couldn’t believe we were going to bird in the pitch black at the park. Since we live north of Seattle and Lake Washington, it would take us at least half an hour to get to our selected site. Would the park gate even be open? Would we encounter danger? Did we remember to bring our flashlights? After we got to our circle, we would set up our chairs and scopes to begin the day. The sole purpose of birding at that time of darkness is the chance to hear or see owls! These early mornings would sometimes bring us a barn owl soaring low across the meadow in the lamplight by the concrete restroom facility, along the southernmost part of the Loop Trail. But after about ten years of getting up so early only to mostly not spot owls, we decided to begin our count at sunrise.
​
Spotting a northern shrike in the meadow was a coveted find. Other unusual birds have included turkey vultures, peregrine falcons, and Wilson’s snipes. One year, a broad-winged hawk was seen, which was only the second recorded sighting in Seattle. Another highlight was watching a stream of twenty-seven Steller’s jays followed by one California scrub jay migrating south along the bluff. One late afternoon, we were stunned yet thrilled to see a short-eared owl soaring high overhead above the meadow. That is uncommon for urban areas. We had a total of 56 species that year, 2011, which is our record. We only matched that count two other times, in 2017 and 2023. The total number of species seen from 2009 to 2024 is 104! From year to year, we average a species count in the low fifties. We normally have the highest species count in Washington, but other states like Texas and Florida tend to record a higher number of species.
Cold or wet, but always thrilled with our birding moments in the dark and in the light, we treasure our time spent counting species and sharing what we hear and see with each other. Year after year, we would begin another Big Sit with the storyline: "Remember the time when we saw or heard…" or: "Remember when Neil dreamed that we were counting sounds of planes and barking dogs, and he kept reminding us to only count birdcalls and songs?"
Birding connects us with nature and with each other. There is so much to learn, so much to share, and so much to enjoy. The Big Sit at Discovery Park always surprises us with a rare gem of a bird species in addition to the usual birds we love seeing year after year.
​
Neil Zimmerman and Carleen Ormbrek Zimmerman have been active birders and volunteers at Discovery Park since the early 1990s. Both teach classes at Brier Library. Neil does monthly bird walks at Discovery Park. Carleen has been a field sketcher and urban sketcher. She often used the non-birding downtimes to sketch and scribe, live on location, during the Big Sits. They have been active volunteers for decades with Birds Connect Seattle and have completed their Master Birder programs, Neil in 1989 and Carleen in 2015.
