2021-2022 Christmas Bird Count Results

Barry Langdon-Lassagne — Aggregator

Here are the results from our four Christmas Bird Counts for this winter. Across our four count circles, hundreds of volunteers were able to tally 218,529 individual birds spanning 192 species.

View the 2021-2022 TABLE — an aggregation of the results from all four Christmas Bird Counts
(also see previous years’ results)

San Jose Count Circle

19 December 2021
Mike Azevedo — Compiler

The San Jose Christmas Bird Count took place on Sunday, December 19th, 2021. Covid was still an issue for the count and measures were taken to keep counters safe. Fog was also a challenge this year, more than any Christmas bird counts I’ve ever participated in. Many birds were obscured.

78 volunteers hit the parks, open spaces and even urban corridors counting more than 78,000 birds from Alviso to Evergreen and Sunnyvale to Alum Rock Park. No countdown dinner was held. Instead, a countdown video was put on the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society Youtube channel that is still available for viewing. Photos taken that day of both rare and common birds were shared as well as some of the birders enjoying the crisp morning air.

Alviso rarities included Snow Goose and Glaucous Gull. Oddly enough many rare birds (which require a writeup) were seen in multiple sectors, including Greater White-fronted Goose which was seen in Alviso, Evergreen, and even 20 of them flying over Alum Rock. Violet Green Swallows, another writeup bird have me questioning if they even should be considered rare as they showed up at no less than five sectors. Cackling Goose and Eurasian Wigeon, yet more writeup birds, also seemed to ignore their rare status and show up in both Alviso and Calaveras. Cackling Goose also was present in Evergreen.

Ferruginous Hawk was present at Calaveras as well as Alum Rock. In addition to Violet Green Swallows, Barn Swallows,Tree Swallows and even Northern Rough-winged Swallows were also sighted. Phainopepla, Western Tanager and even a Chipping Sparrow were found as well.

The abundance of rarities were balanced by a few unfortunate misses. Short-billed Dowitcher, Brown Pelican, Northern Pygmy Owl, Short Eared Owl, Prairie Falcon and the saddest of all, Forster’s Tern, never materialized. Horned Larks were also a miss but can be noted as “count week birds”, having been seen at Alum Rock sector within the count-week window.

Palo Alto Count Circle

20 December 2021
Al Eisner — Compiler

The Palo Alto CBC on Dec. 20 found a total of 166 species, an average number. While the effort in party-hours dropped somewhat from the previous year, there were an unprecedented 150 participants.

Since the CBC is a census, let's start with some observations on abundance. Many landbird species show little year-to-year fluctuation, making it easy to detect trends. By far the most striking on this count were the soaring numbers of both AMERICAN CROW and COMMON RAVEN. Also reaching a significant new high was PYGMY NUTHATCH, which has been spreading (found by 13 parties, 5 in Santa Clara County lowlands). Several species (e.g., ACORN WOODPECKER, WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, WESTERN BLUEBIRD) maintained the high levels reached last year, while EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE maintained last year's reduced level. PINE SISKIN showed up in modest numbers, all at high elevations.

The star of the show was the CURLEW SANDPIPER found by Mike Rogers at the lagoon behind the duck pond at the Palo Alto Baylands, the first ever found on any California CBC. Two would-be supporting actors, a ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK and a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK (each seen on one previous Palo Alto CBC) turned up separately during count-week at Ann Hepenstal's feeder (private), but neither was identifiably seen on count day. Likewise, the long-staying BRANDT'S CORMORANT failed to show.

A TROPICAL KINGBIRD was found at Geng Road in Palo Alto, one of two stakeout birds returning for their second winter; last year was the first appearance of this species on the count. BLACK OYSTERCATCHERs have taken up semi-residence at salt pond SF2 along the Dumbarton Bridge; this year's 3 marked the third year for this species on the count. And a LEWIS'S WOODPECKER near the sag ponds at Montebello OSP was the first since 2007. Shorebirds missed most years included a good number of SNOWY PLOVERs at the Dumbarton salt ponds and RED KNOTs at the mouth of San Francisquito Creek.

Other less-than-regular species included SNOW GOOSE at the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control ponds, RUDDY TURNSTONE, the continuing COMMON LOON at Mountain View Shoreline Lake, TREE SWALLOWs at the Mountain View Forebay, VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWs at Jasper Ridge, a continuing BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER at Byxbee Park, LARK SPARROW near the Stanford Dish, and YELLOW WARBLER.

Regular species missed: Red-breasted Merganser, Short-billed Dowitcher, Wilson's Snipe, Golden Eagle, Burrowing Owl, Loggerhead Shrike, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Swamp Sparrow.

A successful count, thanks to our hard-working region coordinators and to all who participated. I hope it was also fun!

Calero-Morgan Hill Count Circle

27 December 2021
Rick Herder — Compiler

80 Christmas Bird Counters braved wind, rain and even flooding on Dec. 27 to complete the 22nd Calero-Morgan Hill count. Birds were hard to find and observers reported an unusually low number of 136 species. But they found several notable birds. A Burrowing Owl was found in Coyote Valley. Greater White-fronted, Snow, and Cackling Goose are again wintering in the fields between Bailey and Laguna Avenues, also in Coyote Valley. A Roadrunner continues on private land on Coyote Ridge. All these observations confirm the importance of preserving Coyote Valley. Pileated Woodpecker showed up for the second year in a row at Uvas Canyon County Park near the campground, we hope it is expanding into our circle. Observers spotted 2 Lewis’s Woodpecker, at both the southwest and northeast edges of the circle. Chipping Sparrows were at TJ Martin Park. Like last year, several swallow species have been observed at multiple places in the circle. Although bird numbers were low in general, we recorded our highest ever numbers of Greater White-fronted Goose (20), Canada Goose (997), Western/Clark’s Grebes (186), and remarkably for such a wet and windy day, White-throated Swift (163).

Mount Hamilton Count Circle

2 January 2022
Bob Hirt — Compiler

We had our count on January 2, 2022 and had cold weather throughout the day. Most of the smaller ponds were slightly frozen and the water birds were concentrated on the larger bodies of water. We had very little weather-related access problems since Hwy 130 was open and dry Farm roads were passable with the right 4WD vehicle. However, there was 4 inches of snow at the top and tourists were enjoying that phenomenon but some were blocking the highway.

The result was a complete count. A year after the huge CSU fire which devastated our count circle, we had a record low species count coming in at 80 species versus a count in the nineties in the ten pre-fire years. Also, due to the damage from the fire we only found 4,708  individual birds for the day. For the first time Lawrence’s Goldfinches were absent from the count as were American Robin, Wood Ducks and Common Mergansers. Birds that are dependent on the sage and chemise habitat such as Wrentit, California Thrasher, Fox and Bell’s Sparrows had very low numbers as well.

Note that Lawrence’s Goldfinch was missed on every count area this year. Even Mount Hamilton which in the past has recorded National highs at nearly 400. American Robins and thrushes in general found nothing of interest up there this year either.

Thanks to our leaders again: Kirsten Holmquist, Mike Rogers, Mike Azevedo, Charles Coston,  and especially, Pete Dunten who hiked through the snow on the Mule trail and to Kirsten Holmquist and her teammate Rich Page for doing the long hike on one of the large ranches. Our deepest thanks to our many year dinner host,Elinor Gates for helping count the birds at the snowy top and stocking her house feeders.

See also Past Years Christmas Bird Count Results.

Banner photo: Ginger Langdon-Lassagne scanning the floodwaters of Coyote Creek during the Calero-Morgan Hill Christmas Bird Count. Photo by Barry Langdon-Lassagne