Dead birds falling from the Rancho Santa Fe skies? Nope, Audubon just counts live ones...

                      (Photo: Sandhill Cranes, locals were on the lookout for a few more winter visitors on Jan. 3)

Following this weekend's annual bird count at Chino Farm and surrounding Rancho Santa Fe areas, the San Diego Chapter of the Audubon Society is making its list and checking it more than twice.

About 70 Rancho Santa Fe bird counters on Jan. 3 spread across a 15-mile radius from Torrey Pines and Cardiff to Lake Hodges and Miramar Reservoir. The 2009 count revealed 193 species among 36,573 birds counted.

Volunteers across the country, and the county, gather together from Christmas through January to count birds on behalf of the Audubon Society. The practice dates to the late 1800s.

The local count dates to 1953. It occurs in six parts of the county — San Diego, Anza-Borrego, Lake Henshaw, Rancho Santa Fe, Oceanside and Escondido — on different days during the holidays. Volunteers work inside the 15-mile-diameter circle.

 Early stats for this season's count showed 219 species in San Diego County, the second highest total since 1953.

 “At the time of the founding of the Audubon Society, there was a tradition to go out and shoot birds on Christmas Day,” said Phil Unitt, curator of the Department of Birds and Mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum. “The Audubon Society was trying to draw public attention to the carnage. So the ideas was to go out and count birds instead of shooting them.”

(Photo: Worm-eating warblers are rare around San Diego County, but local bird watchers expected to see a few last weekend.)

Species doing the best these days are urban adapters, said Unitt. Birds sensitive to habitat fragmentation are dwindling. The San Diego circle set a record low this season for sightings of the California quail at two birds. In 1980, 202 quails were counted.

Christmas Bird Count

Preliminary results for the 2010 San Diego Circle:

"Today's total of 219 species on the San Diego Christmas bird count, if it holds, is the second highest in the count's 58-year history, exceeded only by 222 species in 1969. The Swainson's Hawk photographed today by Matt Brady and Oscar Johnson makes 360 species ever recorded on the San Diego CBC (4 obviously misidentified species reported long ago excluded). The Thick-billed Kingbird was recorded on one previous count, at Glen Abbey Cemetery in 1966. The Broad-billed Hummingbird was recorded 4 times previously, in 1979, 1980, 1982, and 1985. Thanks again to everyone for a great count! " Posted by Phil Unitt on SDBirds, 12/19/10 

The 2009 CBC event totaled 205 observed species in the San Diego Circle. Twenty four species were observed at their record CBC highs including the Greater Scaup (264), Osprey (44), Anna's Hummingbird (1131), Black Phoebe (506), Say's Phoebe (152), Black-headed Grosbeak (4), and Bullock's Oriole (20) .

The most abundant bird this year was the Surf Scoter with 7613 observed. The American Crow total was 5581. The European Starling total of 964 was the second lowest for the count since 1965. Other low counts were tallied for the California Quail (14), Cactus Wren (1) and Loggerhead Shrike (1).

To view the complete results of past years' counts on the National Audubon websiteclick here. To make a table of all findings and to see a list of participants use the follow the steps as guided there.

Under Step 1 Option C: Count code, enter CASD for the San Diego count circle and click.
In Step 2, select San Diego and click Add. 
In Step 3, select start and end dates, and then click MAKE A TABLE. 

To see other San Diego County count circles, enter the following in Step 1 Option C:

Rancho Santa Fe  [CARS] 

33.0°  X  -117.1333° 
California Region 
Christmas Bird Count
Count Years: 109  — 110