2026 Great Island Big Sit! Results
Per Big Sit rules, you can count on either Saturday or Sunday of the designated weekend. Our group tries to maintain the flexibility to choose the day based on weather conditions. This year we were again able to do that, and Saturday was clearly the winner. While Sunday was forecast to be a washout, Saturday called for exceedingly pleasant weather with decent migration conditions.
Phil was the first to arrive on site, at 4am, to a vocal Black-crowned Night-Heron. Slowly the rest of us trickled in. Listening conditions were perfect thanks to the total lack of wind. A light northwest wind was forecast overnight, which is perfect for migration, but conditions weren't as ideal to our north. Consequently, the volume of arriving birds was modest as indicated by the light radar returns. But some migration is still a whole lot better than none! We actually recorded 21 species predawn including such passerine NFCs as several Swainson's Thrushes, a late Wood Thrush, a Dickcissel, and a Scarlet Tanager.
The first couple hours of daylight are always hectic and vital to a solid count for the day. The warbler morning flight was heavy in Yellow-rumps and not much else. Palms picked up later in the morning, but warbler diversity was not high. Highlights did include a Tennessee and a surprise Connecticut! This site strongly relies on landbirds, as the marsh is not nearly as productive for shorebirds and dabbling ducks as you'd expect. So some passerine diversity is key.
The onward flight of passerines was also slow but steady. A couple Pipits here, a few finches there.
Migrant raptors were non-existent early, which was a bit worrying even without wind, as I'd have expected some early falcons and accipiters. But mid-morning into the afternoon that light north breeze materialized and we ended up seeing all the common migrant raptors.
The midday lull felt like it came early this year as the passerine movement ground to a halt. We had 94 species at 10:45am and slowly clawed our way to 96 by 1:00pm. Very few landbirds lingered through the day other than a bunch of Yellow-rumps.
We always see a small pulse of new species in the afternoon, and this year's afternoon push was assisted by a kayak of the Great Island marsh that picked up marsh sparrows, Green-winged Teal and American Golden-Plover. One of the less common birds of the day was Lapland Longspur out in the marsh, but it was not seen by the circle so it does not go on the list.
Our final total came to 105 for the day, one better than our previous best. I'd say our highlights were Northern Pintail, all three scoters, many dawn Nighthawks, the golden-plover, a vocalizing predawn Wilson's Snipe, a single flyby Purple Finch (scarce so far this autumn), at least one Rusty Blackbird that was cooperative enough to tee up for nice scope views, the Connecticut Warbler, and two migrating Dickcissels.
This was one of those days where numbers were never impressive and we didn't have that jolt of encountering a rarity, but we picked up ones and twos of several species that really boosted our tally.
Biggest misses were probably Fish Crow (always tough here!) and Cedar Waxwing, though there were several runners-up such as Red-breasted Merganser and Semipalmated Sandpiper.
Full list here:
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| Photo courtesy Bob MacDonnell |
- NB
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