The 25th Dudleyville Christmas Bird Count on Saturday 4 January was
conducted by 34 volunteers who did a great job counting birds along a
stretch of the lower San Pedro River and Aravaipa Creek. Conditions were
much drier than typical for this count, but many teams were able to find
some wet spots—irrigated fields, leaky water spigots, and even a beaver
pond—that were attracting birds. This helped make our totals better than
might have been expected.
The number of species (111) reported was four higher than the year before,
and the total number of birds (6,806) was the highest in the past six
years. An ACORN WOODPECKER was a new species for the count circle. Other
highpoints were NORTHERN BEARDLESS TYRANNULET (the second record for the
count), three SAGE THRASHERs, which had been reported on only three
previous counts, and WILD TURKEY (also the fourth record for the count and
the first time reported in more than one section.) We registered 25-year
highs for four species: Wild Turkey (11), Northern Harrier (13), Red-tailed
Hawk (76), and Merlin (4). Species tied for high counts included Ruddy Duck
(9) and Virginia Rail (4).
Two species had their second highest count: White-throated Swift (299) and
Anna’s Hummingbird (18). Notably, the Western Bluebird total (140) was the
highest since January 2010, and the White-crowned Sparrow total (1,557) was
the highest since January 2016. The latter is particularly noteworthy as
last year we reported only 444 White-crowned Sparrows, the lowest in 25
years of the count.
