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Annual Christmas Bird Count spots 135 species
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Sharp-eyed bird enthusiasts were out once again this year to help tally bird species in the annual Christmas Bird Count.
Forty-eight individuals participated in the Redbud Audubon 2013 Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, Dec. 14, in weather that was considerably better than last year’s cold, wind and snow, according to Darlene Hecomovich, the local count's coordinator.
The local count – now in its 39th year – was part of the 114th national event, which began Dec. 14 and is continuing through Jan. 5 in other parts of the country.
The results from Lake County's Dec. 14 count indicate that 135 different species were found, up from the 126 sighted last year but down from the preceding 10-year average of 140 birds, according to Hecomovich.
The figure for the total number of individual birds is 34,249, which is down considerably from the preceding 10-year average of 48,530 birds but up from last year’s 24,114, she said.
When assessing this 10-year average figure, Hecomovich said it is important to recognize that it encompasses a low of 23,313 individual birds in 2008 to a high of a whopping 135,312 in 2004. That year, there was an abundance of fish-eating birds on Clear Lake because of the generous food supply of threadfin shad and silversides.
For the third year in a row, the ruddy duck won the prize for the most individuals seen, with an historical high of 16,151 individuals, Hecomovich said. Its previous 10-year average is 5,102, with a previous high of 14,838 in 2011.
The highlight of the count was a greater roadrunner seen by one field party. The roadrunner has had only four winter sightings in Lake County and appeared on the Christmas Bird Count only once before, in 1983, when one individual was seen, Hecomovich said.
Some other rare species Hecomovich said were tallied in the count were two cackling geese, two cinnamon teal, one Barrow’s Goldeneye, one red-necked grebe, one green heron, both prairie and peregrine falcons, five soras, one Pacific Wren, three blue-gray gnatcatchers, three Bell’s Sparrow (formerly known as sage sparrow) and one white-throated sparrow.
Birds they would like to have seen but missed were ring-necked pheasant, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Hutton’s Vireo, red-breasted nuthatch and the Pine Siskin, which Hecomovich said was represented by only one individual, whereas 57 were counted last year.
Hecomovich thanked all the birders who joined in to create a successful Christmas Bird Count.
She said participating in the Christmas Bird Count is great fun and is rewarding. It's also the largest, oldest, and possibly the most important, census of North American birds that takes place every year.
For those who missed it this year, Hecomovich encouraged them to take part in the 2014 event.
For more information about Redbud Audubon, visit http://redbudaudubon.org/ .