Illustration by Chris Archer

Back in 2004, Patty and I joined fellow Fykers John and Pat Brotherton, Stiles and Lillian Thomas, and Charlie Mayhood and Betty Aiken for a 10-day birding trip to England that included a Big Sit in northern England.

Not to brag but our team, which did include a few Brits, came in fourth internationally.

With another Big Sit scheduled for thiz Sunday, I thought

The goal of the Big Sit, an annual international competition, is to see as many species of birds as you can while standing or sitting inside a 17-foot-diameter circle on one designated day.   

Our friend Stiles had recruited some local hot-shot Brit birders for our team, and they knew the birds and terrain so well that they saw every one of the 85 species before any of us Yanks.

My job was to find a Canada Goose. We didn’t even see that. Location, location, location.

When the results were announced, we learned that our team came in fourth out of 122 teams worldwide.

We agreed this proved that Woody Allen was right. Eighty percent of success is just showing up.