Well. After losing my main computer with all the records, I remembered sending out a draft of this report to the participants and it was still in my email out in the cloud. Whew!

[Pretty much what the lower elevation terrain is like. Higher up or down by Kelso Creek you get trees. © Natureali.org]

So, very early on December 21st we set out. Around 8:00 a.m. it was pretty cold – around 40 degrees – but the sun did come up and lasted all day.

[Bewick’s Wren. © Natureali.org.]

As we proceeded up Jawbone Canyon we saw less than we had hoped. In fact, we invented a new group name: a Paucity of White-crowns. Usually they are the most common bird, numbering in the several hundreds. Today among the five groups of us counters we saw 156. The weather was quite nice, rising to the high 50s with very little wind. Our maxim on the Christmas Count is the better the weather, the fewer the birds. As Alison said, never has she worked so hard to see 21 species in a day.

[Bushtit. Relatively speaking, numerous, ending up with 78. © Natureali.org.]

[White-tailed Antelope Squirrel. Maybe a bit unusual as it is at the western limit of its range. © Natureali.org.]

[Bell’s Sparrow. One of the specials in this area. I can remember a phone call from the BLM asking me where they hung out in the winter in the count circle – I think I said ‘everywhere’. © Sona Conlin]

Loggerhead Shrikes were in normal numbers but raptors were not.

[Red-tailed Hawk. One of only six seen all day. ©Sona Conlin]

We covered many different habitats from stream-side to high pine and oak forest but didn’t find many woodpeckers.

[Williamson’s Sapsucker. Probably the bird of the day. © Natureali.org.]

[Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco. © Natureali.org]

[White-throated Nuthatch. © Natureali.org]

[Phainopepla. Rounds out a group of tree-loving birds. © Sona Conlin]

The list is appended below. 40 species is slightly below average, but the total of 821 birds is low. Looking back over the 47 counts since we started in 1977, the average is 1,111 birds. It goes up and it goes down, and we hope next year we’ll be back up again.

My thanks to Reed Tollefson, Steve Hylton (Kelso Creek and surrounds) and Ali Sheehey (Paiute Mtn. Road, mostly) from the Audubon Kern River Preserve, Mickey Dyke and Sona Conlin (Butterbredt Spring and Butterbredt Road and Kelso Valley and the Paiutes!!) from Antelope Valley Audubon, and Chris Lord and, Connie Day and Alice Bragg (Jawbone Canyon, Kelso Valley and the Paiutes) from SMBAS in my car, dedicated counters and Citizen Scientists all. A special thanks to Alison and Sona for their images of the day.

Butterbredt Spring CBC 2024

9              Mallard

2              Mountain Quail

74            California Quail

3              Cooper’s Hawk

1             Accipitrine sp.

6              Red-tailed Hawk

3              Sora

4              Acorn Woodpecker

1              Williamson’s Sapsucker

3              Nuttall’s Woodpecker

1              Downy Woodpecker

3              Hairy Woodpecker

8              Northern Flicker

4              American Kestrel

2              Say’s Phoebe

10            Loggerhead Shrike

43            California Scrub Jay

99            Common Raven

16            Horned Lark

3              Mountain Chickadee

2              Oak Titmouse

78            Bushtit

3              White-breasted Nuthatch

4              Rock Wren

1              House Wren

7              Bewick’s Wren

1              Cactus Wren

7              Ruby-crowned Kinglet

9              Western Bluebird

1              Northern Mockingbird

4              Phainopepla

77            Dark-eyed (Oregon) Junco

156          White-crowned Sparrow

3              Golden-crowned Sparrow

109          Bell’s Sparrow

1              Savannah Sparrow

1              California Towhee

7              Spotted Towhee

2              sparrow sp.

5              Red-winged Blackbird

29            Western Meadowlark

19            Brewer’s Blackbird

821          Birds Seen

42            Species/Subspecies/Unknowns Seen

-2             Adjustment to Species Seen

40            Net Species Seen