Conservation

113th CBC Nevada/Arizona Regional Summary

By Steve Ganley

For the 113th Christmas Bird Count Season 14 counts were held in Nevada. Some compilers noted that warmer temperatures had kept the water open and they had more waterfowl in their area than normal. But no snow in the mountains probably kept a few species from being seen down lower such as rosy-finches and Cassin’s Finch.

Truckee Meadows continued to lead the state in total species with 109. Even though a newly discovered rare bird in the southern part of the state caused the compiler to worry if he would have enough participants, they still pulled off a great count. Henderson was second with 99 species and the cold and wind kept them from taking a boat out on Lake Mead and kept them from breaking the century mark. Carson City was next at 95 species. They had 3000 more birds than last year and new high counts for 13 species. A count week Western Screech-Owl was a first for them. Desert Game was next at 89 species and held some of the rarest birds in the state on their count. Minden was right behind at 87 and Muddy River at 86. Pyramid Lake was cold but still had their 3rd highest total with five new species for their count.

There seemed to be a lot more unusual species found on the counts this year. A Long-tailed Duck was a cw bird at Elko. Barrow’s Goldeneye was found on two counts, Carson City and Truckee Meadows. The only Red-breasted Mergansers were on Pyramid Lake where they had three. Jarbidge managed a dozen Greater Sage-Grouse. A very rare inland Red-throated Loon was at Pyramid Lake as was the only American White Pelican, and the only Brown Pelican was at Henderson. A Neotropic Cormorant caused a lot of excitement on the Desert Game Count.  Unusual shorebirds included two American Avocets at Henderson and a heard only Lesser Yellowlegs at Truckee Meadows. Gulls are always interesting especially inland. Two counts had Thayer’s Gulls, Pyramid Lake and Truckee Meadows. Pyramid Lake also counted a Glaucous-winged Gull and Truckee Meadows had a long overdue Glaucous Gull. Eurasian Collared-Doves have spread all over the region; Elko observers noted that they had their first four in 2005 and this year they counted 880! Pyramid Lake had a Short-eared Owl, and 25 Anna’s Hummingbirds were found from Henderson north to Truckee Meadows.. One of the stars of this year’s counts was the Dusky-capped Flycatcher found at Desert Game. It seems that it stayed around just long enough to be counted. There were two counts that had Pacific Wrens, Desert Game and Muddy River, each with one. Desert Game also had the only Sage Thrasher.

The warmer fall temperatures seemed to show up in the warblers that lingered in the state. There were 34 Orange-crowned Warblers spread over six counts. A Chestnut-sided Warbler was a count week bird on Desert Game, and two counts had Black-throated Blue Warblers, Henderson and Red Rock. And there were almost 900 Yellow-rumpeds with Henderson having three Myrtle types. Snake Valley claimed the only Green-tailed Towhee.

Minden had the only Chipping Sparrow and Muddy River the only Vesper Sparrow. Desert Game had a Fox Sparrow and a Harris’s Sparrow. Pyramid Lake had a Harris’s count week, and also tallied two Lapland Longspurs new to the count. The only Yellow-headed Blackbird was at Henderson. Carson City had Pine Grosbeak for only the second time, and while there were several Common Redpolls in the state this winter, only Pyramid Lake found one on their count. .

For the 113th Christmas Bird Count in Arizona, 35 counts were held. While there were no brand new counts, the Grand Canyon Count had not been run for 30 years.  Weather often plays a major roll on how well the individual counts will do. This year we came into the count period after a very warm fall. Many of the trees still had their leaves, and insects for food were still around. This caused many species to linger in the area longer than normal.  Several counts had species that are usually much further south by now. This also kept the cold weather species from up north from being forced south by cold weather, so some species were in much lower numbers or absent.  Several counts try to run early in the period to avoid later bad weather.  But this year the first storm of the season arrived on the first two days of the count period and affected a few of the counts, cutting off access to some areas due to snow. About ten counts ran on the first three days of the period.  The Grand Canyon count and Mormon Lake were both hit hard by snow.  Farther south it was only rain showers.

Green Valley-Madera Canyon had a very impressive total of 164 species to lead the state. Tucson Valley was second with 153 and Ramsey Canyon was right behind with 151. They are still recovering from a devastating fire and the habitat is just growing back. The Phoenix area counts did well, with the Salt-Verde Count at 148, Phoenix-Tres Rios at 147, and the Gila River Count at 144 species. The Atascosa Highlands had a good count with 142 species. There were another 14 counts that tallied over 100 species.

There were many interesting birds found this year and a few of them were new to the region.  Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks seem to be getting harder to find with only Phoenix-Tres Rios having recorded them. Four Surf Scoters on the Bill Williams was high and the only Long-tailed Duck was away from the Colorado River at Ramsey Canyon. Masked Bobwhites are no long extant in Arizona, as they were “grazed out of existence” in the early 1900’s. Attempts to reintroduce have not worked well, but six were seen on the Buenos Aires Count for the first time in 13 years. The only Pacific Loon was at the Bill Williams Delta, as was the only Red-necked Grebe. Only one Brown Pelican was counted in the state at Martinez Lake-Yuma.

Although it was only a count week bird, it was nice to see California Condor listed for the Grand Canyon. Without the snow they would have seen it on count day. Red-shouldered Hawks were found on two counts, Hassayampa River where they seem to be settling in as resident, and another on the Salt-Verde River count. A species still very rare in winter but increasing, a Gray Hawk was at Patagonia. Interesting shorebirds include not one but three Solitary Sandpipers. One was on Tucson Valley count for the second year, and the other two were at Phoenix-Tres Rios and Salt-Verde Rivers. The rarer gull species tend to show up later in the winter but there was one Bonaparte’s Gull found up in Prescott. Seven Caspian Terns were counted at Yuma and two Forster’s Terns were at Havasu N.W.R. Several Compilers commented that the Eurasian Collared-Doves had increased in numbers and they were recorded on 33 of the 35 Counts. Ruddy Ground-Doves numbers tend to vary from year to year and this year they seemed to be down being found on only two counts, Gila River and Nogales. This was the first year that the Rosy-faced Lovebirds were an accepted species to count toward the species total, and the Cave Creek count had 12.  Perhaps because of the warm weather, two counts had Lesser Nighthawks, Ajo and Tres Rios. Hummingbirds are being found in winter all over the country now and Arizona had its share. There were 80 Broad-billed on seven counts, two Violet-crowned, seven Blue-throated on three counts, ten Magnificent Hummingbirds on three counts, two Rufous Hummingbirds and a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. That is in addition to the 787 Anna’s and 162 Costa’s, which are regularly tallied species.

Five Red-breasted Sapsuckers was an above average tally, and the only Northern Beardless-Tyrannulets were found on the Atascosa Highlands. The six Eastern Phoebes were more than normal, and the Nutting’s Flycatcher on the Bill Williams was the only one in the country. The Thick-billed Kingbird at Yuma has been there for multiple winters. The Bell’s Vireos found on Dudleyville and Havasu N.W.R. were very late, as was the Warbling Vireo photographed on the Salt-Verde Count. The count week Philadelpjia Vireo on the Gila River was new for the region. We are still not sure on the status of Winter/Pacific Wrens, with one of each counted this season. A Varied Thrush was on the far eastern side of the state at Portal.

There were 22 species of warblers found this year, including some rare ones in the mix. These included Olive, Tennessee, Northern Parula, two Chestnut-sided, and both Northern and Louisiana waterthrush. Tucson had its share with a Yellow-throated, Ovenbird, and a Pine Warbler, Flagstaff had a Palm Warbler, and other counts had Yellow, Hermit, Black-throated Gray, Wilson’s, Painted Redstart, and Rufous-capped Warblers.  Tanagers also took advantage of the warm weather with 24 Hepatic Tanagers on six counts and six Summer Tanagers on two counts. A Five-striped Sparrow was on the Atascosa Highlands and Golden-crowned Sparrows were both in Portal and Camp Verde. White-winged Juncos don’t often make it to Arizona but this year it was a count week bird at the Grand Canyon. The snow kept it from being seen on count day. A Lapland Longspur was a good bird in Portal, and this year was a good one for the irruptive Lawrence’s Goldfinch with 526 on 16 counts.

I would like to thank all of the compilers and participants for all of their input and hard work over the years, 2012-2013 was a great CBC Season.