Last Wednesday, December 21st, was the annual Prescott Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. My assigned area was Granite Basin, which covers a large geographical area—from the intersection of Iron Springs and Granite Basin Road, all the way to Granite Mountain.
For purposes of record keeping, I divide my area into three smaller sections which I canvas throughout the day. From Iron Springs Road up to the saddle is area one. This area is predominantly chapparal with a mixture of pinyon and juniper.
Area two begins at the saddle and goes all the way down to the Wekuvde parking lot. This area is a transition zone—it has some pinyons and junipers, but there is also a significant number of ponderosa pine trees.
Area three starts at the Wekuvde parking lot and encompasses the actual “basin”, which includes the lake and areas both upstream and downstream from the lake. This area has riparian habitat and a lot of ponderosa pine, which influences the variety of bird species seen there.
Here are some of my general observations from my ten hours and 45 minutes of birding!
One. The number of berry-eating varieties of birds was way down this year. This indicates a lack of sufficient food to meet their needs, so they’ve gone elsewhere. I only saw a handful of American robins and western bluebirds. I only saw one hermit thrush, and I didn’t see any Townsend’s solitaire.
Two. There were very few irruptive, winter bird species. Some years I see a good variety and quantity of northern latitude species that move south in winter. In previous years I’ve observed evening grosbeaks, red crossbills, red-breasted nuthatches, pine siskins and golden-crowned kinglets on the Christmas Bird Count. This year, I didn’t see any of these species. The only species I saw that fits this category were Cassin’s finches.
Three. With the entire lake frozen over, the number of water birds was practically zero. When the lake is open, I typically see a good mixture of water-dependent species such as American Wigeon, ring-necked ducks, mallards, coots, great blue herons, etc. This year, there were three domesticated ducks standing on the ice, and I saw a total of two mallards the entire day. The lack of water birds really hurt my overall count numbers.
Four. I observed fewer seed-eaters. The most common seed-eaters observed were dark-eyed juncos and spotted towhees, but, other than that, my sparrow numbers were way down. I saw a handful of white-crowned sparrows, chipping sparrows, one song sparrow, and nothing else. Normally I would see other varieties such as Lincoln’s and Fox sparrows, but not this year.
Five. Surprises! These are the things that keep a birder going. I was blessed with several surprises. In area two, at the Yavapai Campground, I saw a beautiful male northern harrier. I’ve never had a harrier in this habitat before, so it was very exciting.
Down by the lake, in area three, I had a lone American goldfinch in winter plumage. This was certainly a surprise find. Interestingly, I didn’t see a single lesser goldfinch all day. Another good find was a Pacific wren just west of the lake. This is a species that is considered rare for our area so I was happy to see it.
For the day, I ended up with thirty-five species, and a total of 507 individual birds observed. The most abundant bird species observed was the diminutive bushtit. I recorded 160 bushtits for the day! Despite all the birds I “missed,” I really enjoyed my time in nature.
Until next week, Happy Birding, and Happy New Years!
Eric Moore is the owner of Jay’s Bird Barn, Arizona Field Optics, and Hallmark in
Prescott, Arizona. Eric has been an avid birder for over 50 years. If you have
questions about wild birds that you would like discussed in future articles, email
him at eric@jaysbirdbarn.com.
