Sit Spot Practice- Day One

Well...today was my first opportunity to truly try out a sit spot.  I've been sizing up some locations overs the last few weeks/months...but I finally just decided to do it.  One of my motivations was that I signed up for the 30 day sit-spot challenge through Jon Young's Wilderness Awareness School.  It doesn't officially start until April 1st, but I thought I'd give it a try.  On Jon Young's "Advanced Bird Language" CD's he suggests that when you do this for the first time that you should try to get into the spot before the sun comes up.  I was so excited as I got into position at 6:45AM that things were still quiet and the birds weren't yet awake.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, as it has been a long time since I was sitting on the ground in the dark in an open field, with thickets and woodline nearby. I was able to settle in though and enjoy the quiet.  When I arrived there was only the sound of 1 or 2 birds calling to each other....then a few minutes later the cardinal joined in. Then more cardinals were singing and I was enjoying the loud "water-whistle like" voices of the cardinals. "chew..  chew...chew...chew.chew.chew.chew." It was wonderful to actually hear the forest begin to wake; but then, I was scared out of my shorts as I heard a bawgh,bawgh,bawgh...BAGAWW!!!! coming from about 20 feet to my right in some brush that I almost sat next to.  I was frightened by the sound initially, but then I comforted myself and tried to steady my mind. As I listened more to the noise, I came to the conclusion that it was probably Wood Frogs(still a guess?), since I had heard similar sounds in the GSMNP about a month ago.  In the end, I spent about an hour there, continuing to hear more birds join the chorus...more cardinals, then the chicakdees, robins and the titmice. The sun had come up by this point and I was ready to head home and check on my wife and daughter(who had slept on the couch the previous night because my daughter got up at 3AM and wanted to play. Like a trooper my wife played puzzles, colored and watched a Clifford movie with her until Syndey finally fell asleep at 6AM).  I look forward to returning to that spot to listen to it all over again.  As Jon says, there really is something special about listening to the sound of the "morning chorus."

With appreciation,

Greg, A.K.A The Accidental Naturalist