Date: 12/30/24 10:32 pm From: Philip Unitt via groups.io <unitt...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] San Diego Christmas bird count--final tally
Dear friends,
I'm glad now to be able to share now the final tally on the San Diego CBC: 230 species! (It pays to triple-check your work.) See below for the complete list.
The most notable species in terms of being recorded on the fewest previous San Diego CBCs: Ovenbird (no previous count), Gray Catbird (1 previous count), Scott's Oriole (2 previous counts), Lucy's Warbler (3 previous counts), Grace's Warbler (4 previous counts--albeit of just 2 returnees), and Little Stint (5 previous counts--albeit of one returnee).
Specieshitting all-time highs were the Allen’s Hummingbird, American White Pelican (even after subtraction of possible duplications in two areas),Great Egret, Red-shouldered Hawk, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Vermilion Flycatcher(biggest spike of any native species on a percentage basis), Common Raven, Wrentit, Phainopepla,Orange-crowned Warbler, Lucy’s Warbler, Nashville Warbler, and perhaps leastsurprisingly, Swinhoe’s White-eye. While not quite breaking records, theVaux's Swift, Long-billed Curlew, Royal Tern, Say’s Phoebe, Tropical Kingbird, House Wren,Scaly-breasted Munia, and Townsend’s Warbler were in high numbers for thosespecies. Most of these reflect long-term increases. The Wrentit numbersbenefited from intensified coverage of urban canyons but attest that thisspecies is coping with habitat fragmentation.
None of theresident species that have been on the decline disappeared this year,thankfully, though with a single individual in Rice Canyon the California Quailhit a record low and barely escaped being missed for the first time in the SanDiego CBC’s history. No irregular winter visitors staged an invasion this year,and numbers of several winter visitors were considerably below average, mostnotably the Lesser Scaup, Surf Scoter, American Coot, Short-billed Dowitcher,Heermann’s Gull (the last presumably reflecting 4 consecutive years of nestingfailure on Isla Rasa), and Northern Flicker. The Ring-necked Duck, Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte’sGull, Forster’s Tern, Sharp-shinned Hawk, European Starling, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Brewer’sBlackbird, while not hitting record lows, were in low numbers by historicalstandards and reflect long-term declines in San Diego.
None of these comparisons isadjusted for the variations in participation over the years, as we're still awaiting the last of the effort data. Since themid-1980s effort on the San Diego CBC has approximately doubled, something thatneeds to be taken into account in a more careful analysis.
The number of species of which just one individual was recorded: 41, implying the importance of getting every bird staked out ahead of time, and implying how luck and chance can swing the totals widely.
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