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| Our 12 Cassin's Vireos broke an eleven-year-old record national high count. |
If you missed the Tucson Valley CBC
this past December 14, or if you did participate and missed the
countdown and potluck, you missed an exciting time. At the end of the
initial reading down the main species list, we still had no idea how
many species had been tallied, as there seemed to be plenty of misses
– silences when I called out expected species. But then we went
group by group and heard of some amazing finds, and it seemed we
might have a pretty good species total after all. By the end of the
countdown, the total came to an amazing 165 species. The previous
high for Arizona was 164, which was set only two years ago by Green
Valley, and which we tied just last year. Then when entering the data
into a spreadsheet I discovered a Canada Goose that hadn't been
noticed during the countdown. 166 species was our official tally.
To see what's possible in the future
I'll go over our misses.
Crissal Thrasher, present in
very small numbers only in a few spots, and sometimes hopelessly
secretive, was missed for only the 3rd time. Redhead was
missed for only the 4th time and was especially painful as
two were at Reid Park the night before the count (and not reported
there again until 11 days later). Common Merganser is a rare
bird here, but it was a bit frustrating when one was found at
Sweetwater Wetlands three days after the count. Also a frustrating
miss was Swamp Sparrow, as our single staked-out bird was
findable the day before and again two days after the count, but it
wouldn't cooperate on count day. A similar miss was the Bullock's
Oriole at a feeder in the NW which was back for its fourth year
but disappeared just a couple days before the count. A Magnificent
Hummingbird at the Ventana Canyon trailhead had been present just
a few days before the count as well. Other species we missed that
have been seen on more than half of the counts since 1971 are Eastern
Meadowlark, Long-billed Dowitcher, Acorn Woodpecker,
and Barn Owl. Black-necked Stilt was a big miss, only
the second time in the past 16 years.
In any event it's clear that 170
species is certainly a possibility – maybe even 175 or more. But to do that we'd have to get
all those expected species, no misses of anything seen on more than
half the counts, as well as find a bunch of unusual birds. But to get even 166, we had a lot of unusual species.
Most unusual were three species new for
the all-time list: Baltimore Oriole (found in November and
still around today, but wandering widely); Virginia's Warbler
(on the lower Santa Cruz River), and Bell's Vireo (in Pima
Canyon). Nearly rare and found for only the second time were
Red-breasted Sapsucker (the
continuing bird at McCormick Park), Hammond's Flycatcher
(in Pima Canyon, and though common south of here we just don't
have much habitat for it), and Louisiana Waterthrush (probably
a returning bird for its second year on the Santa Cruz River).
Species with only two previous CBC records were American Avocet,
Hairy Woodpecker, Pine Warbler, and Tree Swallow;
those with three previous records were Common Poorwill,
Lucy's Warbler, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker;
and those with four previous records were Clay-colored
Sparrow and Lazuli
Bunting. What is most amazing
about these latter two is that, as expected with birds this rare, we
had only ever recorded just one individual in those previous years;
this time we had seven of
the former and ten of
the latter.
A
final note regarding rarities, here is a simple list of the 18
species seen on fewer than a third of historic CBCs and therefore not
a slam-dunk in the future and commendable finds: Double-crested
Cormorant, Snowy Egret, Lewis's Woodpecker, Northern
Beardless-Tyrannulet, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Cassin's Kingbird,
Steller's Jay, Barn Swallow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper,
Eastern Bluebird, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Townsend's
Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Summer Tanager,
White-throated Sparrow, and
Red Crossbill. Virginia Rail also
statistically ranks in this category, except that almost all the
years it was missed date to pre-Sweetwater Wetlands time; we've
missed it only four times since 1998. Eurasian
Collared-Dove has been seen on
only seven previous counts, but that's another story that we're all
quite familiar with. Neither of these two species can be counted as
rarities, and we can expect them in the future.
Now for some
interesting numbers. We broke our own previous high counts for 27
species, tying quite a few more, mostly rarities. Of special note are
five species for which we usually hold the national high count each
year, but by topping our own previous high we also set a new all-time
national high. There are only about 30-40 species which have their
all-time highs broken each year, scattered among hundreds of circles,
so for our one circle to claim five of those is quite amazing. They
were (with the previous national high with count name and year in
parentheses):
Cooper's Hawk 136 (104, Tucson
Valley 2012)
Broad-billed Hummingbird 59 (40,
Santa Catalina Mountains 2011)
Vermilion Flycatcher 384 (267,
Tucson Valley 2013)
Cassin's Vireo 12 (10, San Diego
2003)
Verdin 877 (797, Tucson Valley 2012)
It's worth
mentioning that we tied 19 Plumbeous Vireos, the all-time high
for which we set in 2012.
Speaking
of national highs, each year Tucson Valley regularly ranks among the
top ten counts in the country for the number of species with the
annual high, often for about ten species. In addition to the six
all-time records above, barring any dark horses, we had the national
high count for another nine species: Rock Pigeon, Mourning
Dove, Gila Woodpecker, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Louisiana
Waterthrush (our single bird
tied with at least three other counts), Summer Tanager,
Yellow-headed Blackbird, Lesser Goldfinch,
and House Finch.
Fifteen national highs would rank us in the top three or four, with
the the usual top contenders being Matagorda County-Mad Island Marsh,
Texas and our own Atascosa Highlands.
We topped several
of our own high counts. Seven of our own record highs were of rare
birds for which we just saw a few more, except for the
already-mentioned surprises of Lazuli Bunting and Clay-colored
Sparrow. The others were (our previous high in parentheses):
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2 (1)
Gray Flycatcher 3 (2)
Tree Swallow 4 (1)
Townsend's Warbler 4 (1)
Pine Warbler 2 (1)
Wilson's Warbler 3 (2)
Other species were
counted in record numbers for all sorts of reasons. They were:
Anna's Hummingbird 408 (357)
Costa's Hummingbird 56 (52)
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 84 (81)
Red-breasted Nuthatch 27 (8)
Black-throated Gray Warbler 29 (12)
Abert's Towhee 461 (397)
Yellow-headed Blackbird 19055
(13600)
Lesser Goldfinch 2486 (1739)
In the case of
Ladder-backed Woodpecker, barely topping our old record, having a lot
observers in the field seems to be an obvious factor. But it was
clear already in early November that there were a lot of
Black-throated Gray Warblers around. Abert's Towhees have been
increasing into urban Tucson in past years, so that wasn't a
surprise. It was an invasion year for Red-breasted Nuthatches with
strays being seen already in September, but having a team hike up to
Mount Kimball helped boost those numbers.
Finally, it's
worth mentioning a few species for which we recorded fewer than
normal numbers. Each one could be the topic of an extensive
discussion, with many theories that would need to be examined in
detail. In each case there may be multiple causes, with the effect
being local or regional, temporary or long-term, random or
meaningful. But the ones that repeat from last year are in boldface
below. I thought I should mention that this is our lowest count ever
for Inca Dove, and there seems the distinct possibility that we'll
miss it entirely in the future. The high count from 1980 reported
3932 Inca Doves.
Killdeer 61
Least Sandpiper 26
Inca Dove 5
Greater Roadrunner
11
Gilded Flicker 17
Loggerhead Shrike 6
Cactus Wren 182
European Starling
1064
Canyon Towhee 22
Rufous-crowned
Sparrow 9
Lark Bunting 5
Western Meadowlark
6
Brown-headed
Cowbird 12
I want to thank
all of the Area Leaders for all their help in organizing their teams,
getting their data to me on time, and keeping track of all the effort
data. I also wanted to especially thank Jennie MacFarland for setting
up the potluck countdown and Tucson Audubon Society for paying for
the rental space. And thanks to everyone who helped chip in to cover
my costs.
