Final Numbers for 2024 CBC
By Kathy Barnwell
The data for the 50th Redbud Audubon Christmas Bird Count has been compiled and reviewed, and the total species seen on Saturday, December 14, 2024 remains at 120. The total birds seen has been adjusted down slightly to 15,824, and our count week birds remain at 12. We also had five Rare Bird Reports: Costa’s Hummingbird, Wilson’s Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Western Tanager and Great-tailed Grackle.
The weather this year was not ideal for birding, with heavy rain in the morning and light rain and high winds in the afternoon. The bad weather conditions prevented our kayakers from going out on the lake, and it hindered some of our participants. We had 27 participants this year, with only 65.5 total hours. We haven’t had participation numbers this low for more than 20 years.
This year we had an unusually high number of Yellow-rumped Warblers (269). Unfortunately, we had 14 species with low numbers: Horned Grebe (2); Clark’s Grebe (4); Great Blue Heron (22); Red-shouldered Hawk (8); Belted Kingfisher (6); Nuttall’s Woodpecker (14); Stellar’s Jay (4); California Scrub-Jay (88); American Crow (119); White-breasted Nuthatch (18); Wrentit (4); American Robin (21); Song Sparrow (9); and Spotted Towhee (19). The California Scrub-Jay, American Crow and Spotted Towhee were all on last year’s list of 10 species with low counts. We hope the counts were low this year due to the bad weather and fewer birders, and next year these numbers will rebound.
We so appreciate all of the participants who went out this year in poor weather conditions and completed your routes and paperwork. We especially appreciate the pre and post count day birding done by many of the participants. They reported 12 very good birds during count week, showing that we actually had at least 132 species in our count circle from 12/11/24 through 12/17/24.
Please join us next year for the 126th Annual Christmas Bird Count, and Redbud’s 51st count, on Saturday, December 20, 2025. Mark your calendar!
