This big year thing is really addictive. I keep trying to space out my posts about birds because I know you all want to read about other things, but this one is too good not to share. I really like ibird pro, and I had to pay $29.00 for it. At the moment, it’s on sale for 99 cents, so you if you’ve been wanting to try it, now’s a good time.

Sunday was one of the best spring bird counts I have ever been part of… the weather was perfect, the sun rose in the east as the supermoon set in the west, we had a great mix of volunteers and islanders participating, and we got some terrific, hard-to-see birds. I spent most of the day completely in the moment, tuned to birdsong and the rustle in the underbrush, using every sense I have to observe the world around me. I woke the youngest birder in my house to be outside before first light (about 5:30) and he practically flew out of bed. We joined our friends and vacillated between watching the moonset and the sunrise, and got to the north beach just as the sun was coming up. There in a crowd of shorebirds was a tiny Piping Plover, a Dewees first for me! I totalled 70 species for the day, and Ted even beat me by a few. Some other memorable sightings include a pair of swallow-tailed kites (I missed these, drat!) and some summer tanagers (missed them too!) and a nesting chuck-will’s widow. Check back to this page in a few days if you want to see what the total count was for the Dewees Team. Special thanks to Cathy, Carl, Aaron, Chris, Ann, Pete, and Cindy for lending their expertise and experience to our on island counters: Lori, Bill, Mary Kay, Connie, Bob, Ted, Melinda, Anne, Julie, Zack, Sallie, and anyone I may have missed.