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CAREFREE CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
CAREFREE - CAVE CREEK, ARIZONA
JANUARY 3, 2005
compiled by Walter Thurber
Eighty-five people counted birds this day within an area defined
by a 15-mile diameter circle centered three miles north of the
SkyRanch at Carefree Airport. The count is recognized by the
National Audubon Society, along with some 2000 similar counts
across the Western Hemisphere and in the Pacific Islands.
Count
Results
Canada
Goose
ñ
5
Gadwall
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6
American Wigeon
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55
Mallard 36
Northern Pintail
J
1
Ring-necked Duck 136
Lesser Scaup
ñ
9
Ruddy Duck 5
Gambel’s Quail 1743
Great Blue Heron 3
Green Heron 1
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper’s Hawk 16
Harris’s Hawk 34
Red-tailed Hawk 21
Rough-legged Hawk
J
1
American Kestrel 26
Prairie Falcon 1
American Coot 10
Killdeer
6
Rock Pigeon 119
Mourning Dove 1707
Inca Dove 58
Greater Roadrunner 3
Western Screech-Owl 3
Great Horned Owl 14
Long-eared Owl 3
Anna’s Hummingbird 35
Costa’s Hummingbird 7
Belted Kingfisher 2
Gila Woodpecker 176
Red-naped Sapsucker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 25
Northern Flicker1
54
Gilded Flicker 35
Black Phoebe 5
Say’s Phoebe 31
Vermilion Flycatcher 1
Loggerhead Shrike 13
Plumbeous Vireo 1
Hutton’s Vireo 4
Western Scrub-Jay 29
Common Raven 39
Mountain Chickadee 3
Juniper Titmouse 5
Verdin
72
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
Brown Creeper 4
Cactus Wren 165
Rock Wren 36
Canyon Wren 16
Bewick’s Wren 14
House Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 49
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher 3
Western Bluebird 229
Townsend’s Solitaire 16
Hermit Thrush 20
American Robin 5
Northern Mockingbird 27
Sage Thrasher 1
Bendire’s Thrasher 8
Curve-billed Thrasher 109
Crissal Thrasher 2
European Starling
ñ
487
Cedar Waxwing 9
Phainopepla 166
Yellow-rumped Warbler2
16
Green-tailed Towhee 6
Spotted Towhee 79
Canyon Towhee 98
Abert’s Towhee 144
Rufous-crowned Sparrow 5
Chipping Sparrow 1
Brewer’s Sparrow 4
Black-chinned Sparrow 1
Vesper Sparrow 1
Black-throated Sparrow 380
Sage Sparrow 6
Lark Bunting 30
Fox Sparrow3
1
Song Sparrow 9
Lincoln’s Sparrow
2
White-crowned Sparrow 1833
Dark-eyed Junco4
128
Northern Cardinal 94
Red-winged Blackbird 9
Western Meadowlark 33
Great-tailed Grackle 85
Cassin’s Finch 3
House Finch 876
Lesser Goldfinch 115
House Sparrow 388
[Unidentified] 24
Total
Individuals
10310
Total
Species
95
J
New species to count
ñ
Record high total
1Northern
(Red-shafted) Flicker - 54.
2Yellow-rumped
(Audubon’s) Warbler - 12 and Yellow-rumped Warbler (unknown form) -
4.
3Fox
Sparrow (unknown form) - 1.
4Dark-eyed
(Gray-headed) Junco - 2, Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco - 42, Dark-eyed
(Pink-sided) Junco - 28 and Dark-eyed Junco (unknown form) - 56.
Observers
(area leaders in bold)
Kathe Anderson,
Roy Barnes, Harvey Beatty, Diane Berney, Ray Berney,
Mel Bramley, Charles Breed, Gretchen Burgess, Ed Burnett,
Walter Camp, Sam Campana, Ricki Carlson, Matt Chew, Tillie Chew,
Greg Clark,
Michael Clay, Troy Corman, John Crane, Andrew Cummings, Dom
D’Agosto, Donnie Dann, Tara Deck, Anne Delo, Bix Demaree, Joy
Dingley, Cynthia Donald, Marjorie Eckman, Herb Fibel,
Dwayne Fink, Jack Follett, Dieter Galli, Tom Gaskill, Douglas Green,
Norma Hand, Richard Hand,
Liz Hulen, Thom
Hulen, Brian Ison, Justin Jones, Richard Kaiser, Maryan Kelly, Karen
LaFrance,
Carol Lease,
Vic Lewis, Peggy McKernan, Patrick McMullan, Kathleen Morehouse,
Larry Morehouse,
Bill Muir, Hugh
Murray, Cheri Orvig, Tinker Ouse, Mick Panesar, Timothy Price,
Carlos Ross, Pat Scott, Louise Short, Bart Sotnick, Judy Speer, Tice
Supplee, Tom Taylor, Barbara Thompson, Fran Thurber, Walter
Thurber, Milton Valois, Russ Widner, Robert Wilkens, Todd
Willard, Cathy Wise-Gervais,
Janet Woolgar
and Daniela Yellan in the field.
Peggy
Alexander, Evan Ausman, Jr., Ken Beckner, Raedean Beckner, Nan
Byrne, Frank Casanova,
Thelma
Casanova, Lloyd Doerr, Cindy Foster, Nancy Laizure, Louis Lance,
Dick Stewart, Margaret Stewart and Joey Wilson at feeders.
Summary
Our 13th
annual count will likely be remembered not for the unusual birds we
found but for the unusual weather we endured. We knew that an active
weather day was in store when forecasters called for heavy rain and
a flash flood watch was posted. Rain did move in during the
mid-morning hours and it persisted through lunchtime. The
precipitation abated briefly in the early afternoon before
returning, heavy at times, for the rest of the day. Toward evening
an urban and small stream flood advisory was issued.
The Flood
Control District of Maricopa County maintains a weather station and
rain station at Desert Mountain plus six additional rain stations at
scattered locations within our count area. During the hours we
birded, temperatures at the weather station ranged from 48-52 deg.
F. Rainfall amounts varied but were greatest in the higher terrain,
ranging from .60 in. at the Cave Creek Landfill (elev. 1880 ft.) to
.91 in. at Seven Springs Wash (elev. 3530 ft.). Fortunately there
was little wind associated with the storm. The Satisfied Frog
Restaurant provided a welcome refuge after a long wet day afield.
Our count
totals were dampened by the bad weather but not to the degree that I
had feared. We finished with 95 species, only seven species below
our average for the previous five years. The Northern Pintail at
Rancho Manana golf course and the Rough-legged Hawk at Desert
Mountain were new species for the count. Vermilion Flycatcher was
observed after an eight-year absence and Sage Thrasher reappeared
after five years. The Long-eared Owls spotted along Camp Creek were
another pleasant surprise.
We did miss
more of our winter regulars than usual. The following species were
recorded in each of the past five years but absent this year:
Pied-billed Grebe, Golden Eagle, Wilson’s Snipe, Bridled Titmouse
and Bushtit. Some other big misses were White-breasted Nuthatch,
Winter Wren, Marsh Wren, Orange-crowned Warbler, Savannah Sparrow
and American Goldfinch. Barn Owl eluded us once again and there were
no reports of Peach-faced Lovebirds. We did manage to locate
Savannah Sparrow and American Goldfinch, plus a rare Dusky
Flycatcher, during the count week (12/31/04-1/6/05).
We spotted
10,310 individual birds, down 11 percent from our five-year average.
The most abundant species was White-crowned Sparrow, followed by
Gambel’s Quail, Mourning Dove and House Finch (same as last year).
Western Bluebirds were plentiful and Yellow-rumped Warblers appeared
to continue their slow recovery. We established new high totals for
five species: Canada Goose, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup
and European Starling. So you can see that on a day with weather
“fit for ducks” we took full advantage, locating one new duck
species and establishing three high duck counts!
Once again all
count participants will receive American Birds magazine, the
annual publication that summarizes the results of the most recent
Christmas counts. Bird count records dating back to Christmas Day
1900 can be found on the National Audubon Society website at
www.audubon.org/bird/cbc. I see in the magazine that last year
Carefree had the national high count for Gambel’s Quail, Gilded
Flicker, Cactus Wren, Rock Wren, Bendire’s Thrasher, Curve-billed
Thrasher, Phainopepla and Black-throated Sparrow.
This year marks
my 10th season as the compiler for this count. The job is
time consuming but the rewards are great. Someday I will figure out
how many local and visiting birders have taken part over the years.
I do know that four people have been with me every year from the
beginning and they are Harvey Beatty, Troy Corman, Bix Demaree and
Russ Widner. You each do a great job!
Please feel
free to contact me during the year if you have any suggestions or if
you spot something unusual in the count area. You can call me at
480-483-6450 or use my e-mail address:
wathurber@cox.net.
Finally I want
to say THANKS to all of the birders who shrugged off the ominous
weather forecast, showed up in the morning and hung in there even
after the storm arrived. You made the best of a difficult situation
and I appreciate it. We will likely have better weather next year
and I hope you will be on hand to enjoy it.
Walter Thurber (compiler)
Scottsdale, Arizona
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