So yeah; last Saturday was our local Christmas bird count, which I’ve been organizing for the past few years. It’s always a lot of fun, but also exhausting. Afterwards there’s some work to get everything in order, chasing down rarity documentation, angsting over the species we missed.
This year’s angst is provided by Brown-headed Cowbird, a species that is pretty much always present in our circle but is easy to overlook. And… we overlooked it. *sigh*
I went out this morning, on count day + 3, the last day of “count week” during which we can record species that were seen during the 7 days bracketing the count day but not on the day itself. They’re like a consolation prize. They don’t add to our bragging-rights total, but we can enter them in the form as “cw” birds.
I saw Brown-headed Cowbirds in two different places, right where they were supposed to be. It’s my fault we didn’t get them; I could have picked them up myself in the afternoon, and there were plenty of other birders out batting clean-up. I just failed to recognize that the species was missing and didn’t ask anyone to focus on it.
Next year.
Our species count is probably going to end up at 152, which is pretty much right in the middle of our historical performance. More details, including a link to the eBird trip report with all the checklists, are available on the Carpinteria Birdwatchers website at 2021 Carpinteria CBC Wrap-up.
Apologies in advance. I’m getting very excited about the upcoming Christmas bird count, and am starting to drop references to it in all human interactions. “Why yes, I will have a Coke with that. Also, did you know the local Christmas bird count is happening on Sunday, December 18?”
I’ll try to keep it under control as best I can. More details after a cut.
This year instead of going into the remoter part of the front country in the normally-off-limits Rancho Monte Alegre parcel and the Santa Monica Creek headwaters, I’ve been offered a plum assignment by the local count organizer: The Carpinteria Salt Marsh.
This is a big deal to me.
You’ve probably noticed me talking about the marsh. I’m a volunteer docent there, which means that one Saturday a month (usually the first Saturday) I’m on hand to lead a tour for whoever shows up. I’ve been doing the docent tours for a few years now, but in the beginning, before I got roped into those, what brought me to the marsh was birdwatching.
It’s an amazing place for birdwatching.
These days I have a better understanding of why that is, having gone through the docent training, which involves lectures and field trips with experts in various aspects of marsh science. But even without knowing about how productive and densely interconnected marsh ecosystems are, how large a role wetlands play in the surrounding environment, and how important the native plant restoration has been in the city-owned portion where the docent tours happen, I knew it was a great place for birds.
The Christmas count is a team effort, and in the past I’ve enjoyed doing my part by hitting the local backyards where a Rufous Hummingbird would sometimes overwinter, or hiking up the Santa Monica Creek headwaters to get the occasional rarity (we had Wood Ducks one year). But in terms of sheer numbers and variety, the marsh is the crown jewel of our 15-mile-diameter count circle, and I’ve always envied the people who count there.
This year that’ll be me!
I’m a little anxious about it, because I know I’m not as good as some of the other local birders who’ve done the marsh in years past. But apparently they’re either unavailable this year or will be busy covering remoter parts of the count circle. So I’m doing my best to get up to speed on marsh-specific ID challenges: differentiating the two yellowlegs species, the two dowitchers, medium-sized winter shorebirds, immature gulls, distant terns. Also, getting stronger on the call notes of the various sparrows that hang out in the marsh. I mean, I know many of them. But I need to know them all.
It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.
Carpinteria Salt Marsh Nature Park, Santa Barbara, California, US Dec 6, 2016 8:30 AM – 10:20 AM Protocol: Traveling 1.5 mile(s) Comments: Tide 3’ and bottoming out 46 species
Mallard 2 Blue-winged Teal 10 Bufflehead 7 Pied-billed Grebe 1 Western Grebe 2 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Brown Pelican 2 Actually outside of CSMNP, over ocean. Great Blue Heron 2 Great Egret 1 Snowy Egret 1 Turkey Vulture 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 American Coot 8 Black-bellied Plover 2 Killdeer 1 Long-billed Dowitcher 15 Greater Yellowlegs 2 Watched it swimming and dipping like a dabbling duck in the marsh park channel near the culvert – caught and swallowed a small fish. Willet 1 Western Gull 3 California Gull 7 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 3 Eurasian Collared-Dove 2 Anna’s Hummingbird 4 Allen’s Hummingbird 1 Belted Kingfisher 2 Black Phoebe 2 Say’s Phoebe 1 Cassin’s Kingbird 1 California Scrub-Jay 3 American Crow 5 Bushtit 12 Marsh Wren 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 California Thrasher 1 Northern Mockingbird 1 European Starling 10 American Pipit 1 Common Yellowthroat 2 White-crowned Sparrow 44 Golden-crowned Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 2 Lincoln’s Sparrow 2 California Towhee 4 Western Meadowlark 13 House Finch 10 House Sparrow 2
