Christmas Bird Count Winter 2019—2020 Results

Barry Langdon-Lassagne — Aggregator

Download the Table of Results (pdf) for all four Count Circles, or view past results.

I expect every Christmas Bird Count Circle is a little bit different, but let me give you a taste of what it was like for me being a participant in the San Jose Circle's count. My day began with a lakeside parking lot gathering where the sector leader broke us up into groups making sure each of us hadan official counter, a photographer, and enough expertise to cover our area. We were part of a volunteer team covering the Evergreen Sector, a half-eaten-pie-slice-shaped portion of the San Jose Count Circle that includes Lake Cunningham, Thompson Creek, residential parks, farmland and grassy hills up as far Mount Hamilton Road.

My group spent the morning hiking along Thompson Creek, driving through residential neighborhoods, and scaling the grassy mound in the middle of Groesbeck Hill Park, tallying every single bird we could find. Other Evergreen teams covered the lake, the creek around the lake, the foothills, andthe other suburban parklands. Still more teams covered other San Jose sectors: Alum Rock Park, Sierra Road, the Baylands, Guadalupe River, Ulistac Park...the list goes on. And all of that is just San Jose. There are three other circles in the Santa Clara Valley area, each with their sectors, areas and teams. In all, nearly three hundred volunteers contributed to this snapshot of our local bird population this year.

After all the birding was done, we had a dinner gathering in the Community Room at the Educational Park Branch Library in San Jose. Sector leaders brought the checklists they received from each of the area teams and combined them into a single spreadsheet while eating pizza, salad and dessert brought by still more volunteers. The circle compiler, in our case Mike Azevedo, then began a meeting where we found out from everyone what was seen. He started with a list of likely birds, calling out each one by name, and there was usually a chorus of yeses from the leaders that found that species in their sector. Sometimes there was an odd silence, as a bird no one saw was called out. Those silences became more common as the birds became more rare. And in the end we got a count. The San Jose circle found 163 species this year. See the included table listing for totals for each of the four count circles, along with the total number of birds seen in each circle.

Huge thanks to Carolyn Knight for organizing the CBCs, rounding up volunteers for counting and finding volunteers to bring food for the San Jose dinner.

Below are the highlights from each of our four Christmas Bird Count Circle compilers. Our counts are part of a massive international data collection effort that's been contributingto Citizen Science since the turn of the previous century. You can find more information about the Christmas Bird Count in general on the National Audubon Society's website.

San Jose Count Circle

Mike Azevedo — Compiler

On December 15, 2019, 109 birders spread across San Jose to count birds for the San Jose Christmas Bird Count. Despite good weather, one car got stuck in the mud. Thank you to
the San Francisco Water Department watershed keepers for coming to the rescue.

Mike Rogers and Steve Rottenborn found 46 Cackling Geese, 2 Eurasian Wigeon at the Alviso salt ponds, and 2 Swamp Sparrow at the Alviso Marina. Swamp Sparrow was also seen by Dave Weber at Calabasas Ponds. Blue Winged Teal was reported at Coyote Slough by Kirsten Holmquist and Mallard Slough by Steve Tracey and Bruce Barrett.

A Tree Swallow showed up for Steve, Bruce, Kate Gudmundson and Sarah Chan, Barn Swallow for Dani Christensen and 26 Violet Green Swallow for Mike Ambrose, Sonja Kramer, Barry & Ginger Langdon-Lassagne.

A Black-throated Gray Warbler appeared for Richard Jeffers along the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Greater White-fronted Goose was seen by Ann Verdi and Richard Page at Penitencia Creek.

Two Ferruginous Hawk were sitting in trees during the cool of the morning near Calaveras Reservoir, seen by most of the Calaveras Section birders and reported by Tom Olsen.

It was kind of an average year. Although there were several birds that we print in bold to indicate they are often missed, there were no birds not listed.

In all, 163 species were seen totaling 108,574 birds.

Palo Alto Count Circle

Al Eisner — Compiler

The good weather on December 16, 2019 likely played a big role in the success of the Palo Alto count. Not only did the total of 173 species tie the second highest in the history of the count (the other highs were in the early 1980s), but regular landbirds were widespread and in mostly good numbers; even owls had a nice showing (for which weather affects not only their behavior but also the effort put in to find them). Of the species found on at least 2/3 of recent counts, only four were missed: Cackling Goose, Eurasian Wigeon, Red-breasted Merganser, and Ring-necked Pheasant. At the other extreme, American Crow reached another new high.

Two species were new to the count. Dorian Anderson saw a Black Oystercatcher at Salt Pond SF2 by the Dumbarton Bridge (San Mateo Co.), the location where a pair was reported breeding earlier in the year, and was a newcomer to the Palo Alto summer count. And in Santa Clara County a Plumbeous Vireo, first reported at the Charleston Road marsh by Kevin Gin in early November, was seen both there (by Kevin) and along Stevens Creek nearby (Mike Rogers and Nateri Madavan). A Grasshopper Sparrow near the Stanford dish (Sergey Pavlov and Jacob West) was only the second appearance for this species (the first was in 2003).

Several species on the count have been found only infrequently in the past 15 years: Snow Goose (4 at Mountain View Shoreline Park); Snowy Plover (a nice concentration at Dumbarton salt pond R1, where regular on the summer count); Short-eared Owl (2, one in each county, first on count in 12 years); Red Crossbill at two higher-elevation locations; Palm Warbler (one in Palo Alto was likely a returning bird). Yellow-bellied Sapsucker made its fifth-ever appearance (this one at Windy Hill OSP), all fairly recent. Several other species have only recently joined the avifauna (Great-tailed Grackle first turned up at Mountain View Shoreline about five years ago, with a few since regular) or rejoined it (the always-fun Evening Grosbeak in downtown Los Altos). It is a challenge to evaluate the number of Bald Eagle, with 5 reports totaling 6 adults, along with one juvenile. Finally, House Wren, which winters in southern California, has only twice previously tallied more than 1 (with a high of 3 last year). This year's 5 is only part of the story, because several more reported were omitted due to lack of documentation. An effect of climate change? We'll see.

Two irruptive species were of note. With the exception of 2004, when 58 Red-breasted Nuthatch were found, their number has always been between 0 and 8, so this year's 29 was a notable event. They were well-scattered, with larger concentrations near Skyline. Pine Siskin was also well-distributed; their total was not dramatically high, but was in fact also our highest since 2004.

All in all, an excellent day. Thanks are due to all 122 participants and especially to our hard-working region coordinators. You made it all possible.

Mount Hamilton Count Circle

Bob Hirt — Compiler

We had our count on Thursday, January 2, 2020 and, for a change, welcomed clear but chilly weather in the morning. Even the smaller ponds which are normally initially frozen were open. We had very little weather-related access problems since the roads were open and dry.

The result was a complete count. We had an average species count coming in at 94 species, but with a low count of only 5,274 individual birds. As to individual species we had a very nice year for Lawrence’s Goldfinch with 187 tallied. One other target was the Lewis’ Woodpecker and we had a total of 97 which was our highest in the last 13 years. Charles Coston's team heard a Northern Pygmy-Owl on Hwy 130 near Skye Ranch and spotted a House Wren further down the road. Mike Rogers and Richard Jeffers found a White-throated Sparrow on the Isabel Ranch (private property) which also produced our only Wood Duck and Merlin this year. Bruce Mast had two of our ten reported Golden Eagle on the Mule Trail (UCSC private property) and our only Golden-crowned Kinglet.

All time high counts were recorded for Common Raven (99), Pine Siskin (83), Brown-headed Cowbird (77) and Eurasian Collared-Dove (28). These doves first showed up in 2006 (with only 6) when Mourning Dove (at 111) were by far the most common. The Mourning Dove count this year was only 4 birds versus the 28 Eurasian Collared-Doves. A very good acorn crop produced near record high numbers of Acorn Woodpecker (396) but not as much for Band-tailed Pigeon (89 this year but which had a record high of 458 reported in 2014).

Mount Hamilton also had high SCVAS area counts for: Lewis’ Woodpecker (97), California Thrasher (32), Phainopepla (3), Lawrence’s Goldfinch (187), Bell’s Sparrow (4).

Low counts were for American Wigeon (12), California Quail (260), American Robin (16), Fox Sparrow (16), White-crowned Sparrow (107) and Tricolored Blackbird (4). A beautiful but quiet day with a good species count but a low number of birds considering the good weather.

Thanks to our leaders again: Mike Rogers, Mike Azevedo (leading one of our owling teams), and Charles Coston (co- compiler), and especially, Kirsten Holmquist, Rich Page and Jennifer Rycenga for doing the long hike on one of the large ranches and to Bruce Mast, Petra Kinsman, Leighton Nakata and team for tackling the arduous Mule Trail.

Our deepest thanks goes to Elinor Gates for hosting a marvelous compilation feast again this year and leading the team at the top of Mount Hamilton which found our only Brown Creepers.

Calero-Morgan Hill Count Circle

Rick Herder — Compiler

Ninety observers enjoyed a clear, almost windless count day on Saturday, Dec. 28 and recorded 144 species, a few more than last year. Rare birds for the count included Greater White-fronted Goose and Cackling Goose, Tree Swallow, Violet-Green Swallow, and Barn Swallow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Phainopepla, and Chipping Sparrow. Bird of the day was a Couch’s/Tropical Kingbird in Coyote Valley at Laguna and Dougherty. The census recorded at least 10 different Bald Eagle individuals in the circle, including 2nd-year, 3rd-year, and adult birds. After a hiatus of several years, County Parks Ranger Brian Christensen took a boat of counters out onto Anderson Reservoir. Besides Bald Eagles, the north end of the lake had many aechmophorus grebes and Spotted Sandpiper. During count week a European Wigeon was found at Calero Reservoir.

We had new highs this year for Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Western Grebe, Bald Eagle, Ferruginous Hawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Say's Phoebe, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler and Purple Finch.

See also Past Christmas Bird Count Results