The 4th annual Golden Gate Bird Alliance Richmond Christmas Bird Count
(“CBC”) was held on Sunday, December 29, 2024. It was created to increase
its events in Richmond and its surrounding communities for stronger birding
across the San Francisco Bay Area.
While this was our first count in wet weather, fortunately the rain
subsided by noon allowing time to get some serious birding in before the
end of the day. The count circle is squeezed into a space between other
local CBC circles with the southern point at Point Isabel, the northern
point reaching up into Mare Island and then circling around about a mile
east of the Carquinez Bridge back into Crockett and then cutting through
San Pablo Reservoir on its way home to complete the circle. So a ton of
different environments in a 15-mile diameter!
Our participation from the count's inception has ranked in the top 25 of
over 2,000 CBCs in the nation, this year totaling *159 field observers *and *7
feeder watchers*. Our CBC circle is divided into 18 areas, all led by
fantastic leaders. We mostly birded by foot, but we also had teams birding
by boat, bike, car, and even golf cart!
*Species Count*: We averaged 173 species in our first 3 years, raising that
fractionally by finding *174 species this year. *New species to our count
circle this year were *Mute Swan*, *Black* *Skimmer*, *Pacific Loon*
and *Short-eared
Owl*.
*Bird count highlights*: It’s difficult to discuss trends when you’re only
in your fourth year, but a few items seemed to stick out from this year’s
count:
· 190 *Brant* in the Brooks area are twice the historical average, a
trend that hopefully continues for the only location for them in Contra
Costa County.
· *Brown Pelicans* numbers way down, but maybe that’s really what one
would expect this time of year when most pelicans have flown south.
· *Double-crested Cormorants* count was down significantly, this
species tending to move to where herring spawn runs are in process.
· Only 58 *Band-tailed Pigeons* were seen, only 15% of our average.
· We had 5 *Burrowing Owls* including 2 both at Meeker Slough and
Landfill Loop
· Only 2 *Peregrine Falcons*, when we normally see quite a few more
along the shoreline
· The* American Robin* count of 207 dropped 75% from our average,
something consistent in basically all count zones.
· *Bushtits* won this year’s “Most Consistent Performance” award by
continuing to hug the 600 count. California Towhee finished a close second.
· In total, we counted* 70,546 birds*, 20% higher with the expected
culprits (waterfowl and shorebirds) accounting for the increase.
*Post Count Dinner: *We held our second post-count dinner this year at the
Richmond Elks Lodge with 53 birders who enjoyed a warm meal, community, a
suspenseful species countdown and area leader recaps.
*Trip Report*: The eBird Trip Report is a nice tool to review our counts
results to see where in the circle we found those 174 species. Our 18 area
leaders and their teams accumulated 156 eBird checklists. It’s possible as
a participant that you might see lower quantities on a checklist or two as
a small number of observations were considered overlap with other birders,
but when that’s the case the change was described in the detail under that
species on the checklist.
A big thanks to everyone involved in making this young circle such a big
success including our area leaders, observers, dinner volunteers and GGBA
staff. We hope to see you again next year when we turn five years old.
