by John Besser

To follow up on Noah Strycker’s presentation at MU on the evening of October 15, Noah will participate in the CAS ‘Big Sit’ on Saturday October 16 at the University’s Bradford Research and Extension Center (4968 S. Range Line Rd., Columbia, MO 65201). We will count and identify birds seen from our Big Sit count circle near the large pond on the west side of the area (see start on map). Mid-October is an excellent time to bird Bradford Farm. Many of the area’s fall and winter specialties — including sparrows, larks, longspurs, waterfowl, shorebirds, and raptors — should be present.

The Big Sit will run from 8 AM to 5PM and we encourage birders to keep the count circle occupied by during as much of the day as possible. There will be a sign-up sheet at the CAS table at the Friday evening program so birders can sign up for a time slot on Saturday, and you can also sign up for a time slot by contacting Eric Wood, CAS Field Trip co-chair at (ewood802@yahoo.com). If you can’t commit to a specific time slot, just drop in at the circle any time. If you come around noon, you can join us for lunch, with burgers/brats/hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks provided by CAS. In addition to counting birds from the count circle, groups of birders can spread out to bird other parts of the farm throughout the day.

There will be limited parking on the grass next to the pond, but we encourage Big Sitters to park at the main parking lot (circle ‘P’ on map in the Events listing) near the headquarters in the center of the area. It’s about ¼ mile walk from this parking area to the count circle near the west pond.