I also participated in the Christmas Bird Count here, and I was assigned to the southwesternmost area of the continental US; Border Field State Park, directly on the border with Tijuana.
We had 7 people including myself on the count, and because our area was so incredibly large, we split into 2 groups. I walked a total of 8 miles, going into riparian areas, alongside brackish streams, over coastal salt marsh, and along the beach (extending far out into the water for pelagics). San Diego this time of year is a hotspot for birds escaping the frigid winters up north, so my group compiled a list of over 70 birds!?
The highlights:
- 2 Common Loon
- 90 Snowy Plovers (yes 90, they are endangered)
- 1 Semipalmated (I’m highlighting this because I was able to pick him out of his 90 Snowy friends)
- 7 raptor species (RTHA, COHA, TUVU, WTKI, NOHA, ABOW, GHOW)
- 165 Western/Clarks Grebes
And the birds unique to our plot:
- 1 Rufous-crowned Sparrow
- 1 Loggerhead Shrike
^ the RCSP was expected, as it is just about the only place to see them in south san diego, but the LOSH was a pleasant surprise; wintering rarity.
We did encounter a mild problem, however. Swinhoe’s White-eye, an invasive warbler-like bird that has established a population in the last couple years, was one we would’ve liked to count so that it could be seen on the CBC that these devils were in Border Field, and we did see one…but it was across the border, foraging probably 20 feet over. Considering that birds dont pay attention to politics and country division lines, we were hoping it would fly across…and I kid you not, it flew to a mere 3 feet from the first border wall (there are 2), foraging in some lemonadeberry, and then flew to its first foraging area, where it stayed for the remainder of the time we were looking at it. So unfortunately, we did not count SWWE in our CBC list, but a species total of 70 is not too shabby!
