17TH ANNUAL ABF BIRDATHON

Bob Thériault / Retired State Park Ranger, Environmental Scientist

Despite fairly strong winds this year, the 17th Annual Anza-Borrego Foundation Birdathon on April 13, 2011, managed to eclipse the number of birds recorded last year by one, with a total of 97 species identified.

The birding team members were Mark Jorgensen, Paul Jorgensen, Herb Stone and Bob Thériault. Birdathons fall into the category of the “Big Day”. The single purpose of the Big Day is simply to record as many species of birds as possible in one day, in a given area. The challenge for us was to pick a date when most of our winter visitors are still here, balanced against predicting the occurrence of peak spring migration.

After some pre-dawn birding in our neighborhood we drove to Ranger Steve Bier’s house to look for the Harris’s Hawk that he had discovered only two days earlier – it was obligingly perched on a utility pole behind his residence. Then our day began in earnest as we entered the Borrego Sink area to search for (with success) the endemic Lucy’s Warbler and Crissal Thrasher, and adding Nashville and Orange-crowned Warblers as well – a good start to what would be eight kinds of warblers seen by day’s end.

We then hurried to the Hawk Watch area to pick up a Swainson’s Hawk, and then proceeded to Clark Dry Lake to find another Borrego specialty, the Le Conte’s Thrasher. The wind was very strong out there.

The ducks listed on our tally sheet were found at a golf course pond, and the shore birds at a waste water treatment facility. Normally quite fruitful, the residential area of Borrego Springs that we visited was relatively quiet. All four hummingbird species that we saw were present at Tamarisk Grove, a Vermilion Flycatcher at Butterfield Ranch, Sora and Virginia Rails at a marshy area of San Felipe Creek north of Scissors Crossing, and most of our chaparral-loving birds on the walk to Pena Spring.

Each year we do this birdathon, we have at least one common desert bird that we are just unable to find. This year it proved to be the Hooded Oriole – quite exasperating, since they seem to visit everyone’s yard on a daily basis in the spring!

This time of year one can experience waves of migrants heading north, but we missed that – most of them that we encountered were in very small numbers. Interestingly, 24 of the total species we observed this year were not on last year’s list, meaning that almost one quarter were new birds, and we failed to engage one quarter of last year’s birds. Next year we are hoping for some overlap!

The birdathon team wishes to warmly thank the generous donors to our ABF Birdathon, since it supports Anza-Borrego Desert State Park’s quest to understand the natural dynamics of our beautiful desert.