Christmas Bird Count Fun
Five Christmas Bird Counts this season wasn’t quite enough.
I’m sad to see the Christmas Bird Count season come to an end. Officially there are still two days left to the time period set by the National Audubon Society, but the only Arizona CBC scheduled this late is Glen Canyon, and that’s an 8-hour drive north of me. And I don’t own a car, so I don’t think I’ll make it. It’s only a 10-hour drive to the Kern Valley CBC, to be held on January 5. But no, I think I’ll call it quits and recall some of the fine times I had.
I first did the Florence, Oregon CBC, which was a windy, but mostly sunny day in one of the most scenic places on the planet, and with good the good company of Dennis Arendt and Ram Papish. Sadly, I couldn’t find my camera that day. But one of my favorites will always be the Corvallis, Oregon CBC. I first participated on it as a 16-year-old, compiled it for three years in the early 1990’s, and this year returned to Corvallis to make my 11th appearance on this CBC. I walked the residential areas of town, pishing up flocks, and in our area seeing more Townsend’s Warblers (39) than had ever been seen on a Corvallis CBC. A Nashville Warbler was a good rarity that added to the record species total of 129. When I first participated on this CBC, the typical total was between 100 and 110.
Back in Arizona, I concentrated on preparing the participants for the count that I compiled, Atascosa Highlands. We ended up with 66 participants and 130 species on a cold day, beset with wind and snow flurries. Yet this was the fourth highest total ever attained by this 50-year-old circle. Imagine what we could have found with good weather! Highlights were 8 Elegant Trogons, and a lowlight was a meager 19 Montezuma Quail (two years ago we had a record-breaking 268). I hiked down frigid Peck Canyon from near its source (starting the day at 25°F) and then up Pine Canyon to the only stand of Chihuahua Pines, Pinus leiophylla, in the count circle. My friend Bill Talbot was the perfect hiking companion for this rugged and beautiful area, despite the relative lack of birds.
We had few bird highlights, the best being a pair of Montezuma Quail when we were almost back to the car. I photographed this one in February 2009 during that banner winter.
I did the Portal CBC the very next day with Arnie Moorhouse and Julie Ann Whitcomb, combing desert grasslands and scrub for sparrows, quail, and thrashers. Black-throated Sparrow was one bird we saw in shrubbier habitats, though there were few birds when we stopped to check creosotebush flats.
Finally, yesterday I participated on the Peloncillo Mountains CBC, just southeast of Portal and just barely inside New Mexico, with my friend Christopher Rustay and Steve Whitcliffe. It was a stunning landscape, though quite cold at 7°F first thing in the morning. It warmed up nicely with no wind and dry air as we walked the grasslands looking for sparrows.
One highlight was getting good looks at a Baird’s Sparrow, one of our targets.
Baird's Sparrow copyright Dominic Sherony
Our rarest bird was Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and two were in this giant cottonwood.