A Tale of Two Christmas Bird Counts

Golden-crowned Kinglet, Matthew Studebaker

This past season saw the 124th annual Christmas Bird Count. Volunteers from across North America and beyond take to the field during one calendar day between December 14 and January 5 to record every bird species and individual bird encountered within a designated 15-mile diameter circle. Here are the reports from two of our local counts.

Santa Catalina Mountains Count

By Kendall Kroesen, Count Compiler

The 2023 Santa Catalina Mountains Christmas Bird Count was hampered by strong winds all day in most locations. A few mountain valleys on the downwind side of ridges were the exceptions. Most birders reported lower than expected numbers of most species. Still, sixty-nine participants were able to find 6,342 individual birds of 132 species! This was a respectable species count considering the conditions. 

In a largely waterless count circle we were able to find eight species of ducks, including Hooded Mergansers. Some key species of the mountains showed up, like Golden-crowned Kinglets, Band-tailed Pigeons, and 93 Red Crossbills. I always marvel at what can be found in the mountains in the dead of winter!

Red Crossbill, Tyler Pockette

A surprise in the lowlands and foothills were over 150 White-throated Swift sightings. In the middle elevations Juniper Titmouse, Golden Eagle, and Crissal Thrasher were big hits. 

Tanque Verde Wash yielded its usual trove, including Lewis's Woodpecker, Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, and Greater Pewee. The big surprise of the day were two Sandhill Cranes found in Redington Pass! 

The team of birders that participate in this count is terrific. Please join us next year!

Atascosa Highlands Count

By Jake Mohlmann, Count Compiler

This year we were able to tally a total of 126 species. Although this number is lower than usual, the effort we put forth was impressive. Despite knowing the prospects of getting a lot of birds could be low due to dry conditions, recent fires, and generally low bird numbers all over Southeast Arizona, there was a good showing of counters. 51 people in 25 parties spent 226.48 hours covering 208.84 miles by car, foot, and boat.

Even though the only major bodies of water in the circle are Peña Blanca and Arivaca Lakes, a scattering of cattle tanks can be found throughout which helps explain the 13 duck species recorded, the rarest of which was Wood Duck. Rarely detected species were few, but included Neotropic Cormorant and Greater Yellowlegs, each of which have only been recorded 2 other years.

Northern Parula, Francis Morgan

A Northern Parula found at Arivaca Lake was new for the count! Warbler numbers were also down and surprisingly no Townsend’s Warblers were detected. This region is normally a stronghold at the northern edge of this species wintering range. An effort was made to find the Rufous-capped Warblers in Ramanote Canyon, but they were unable to be located. Although not a new record, it's worth mentioning the Middle Sycamore Canyon group found a stunning male Elegant Trogon, the only one recorded this year for the CBC. This is definitely the most likely place for a Trogon to winter within the circle, so happy this was the case given the conditions. 

There were very low numbers of sparrows recorded all around, with an absence of species we’ve come to expect like Savannah, Brewer’s and Cassin’s. The low count of sparrows was actually impressive with only 2 Lincoln’s Sparrows, 8 Rufous-winged, and 13 Lark Sparrows tallied. Luckily in Lower Sycamore Canyon a single Five-striped Sparrow was detected continuing this CBC’s streak for this rare resident species. 

Five-striped Sparrow, Matthew Studebaker

In record-breaking news the total for Rock Pigeon (8) at Wise Mesa was tied for all time high, and a pair of Wild Turkeys near Bear Valley Ranch broke the old record of 1. Even though the species count was lower than average and overall numbers of birds was low, we put in a great effort to record what was in the circle. Last year’s total number of individual birds was 10,077. This year’s was 4,000. It’s always good to keep in mind that a major goal of these counts is to see what’s out there year after year to assess how bird numbers fluctuate. If we don’t get out there, we’ll never know! An interesting statistic showing this is that during the pandemic we had the fewest number of participants (43) since this CBC was resurrected in 2008, but broke the all time record for this count with 149 species!

If you'd like to join either of these counts next winter, please contact Kendall or Jake.