Siskiyou Audubon SocietySiskiyou Audubon Society
Weather for the Audubon Society's Christmas bird count Saturday, December 19th, was very nice, compared to some years -- mostly cloudy and pleasant temperature, 50f or so much of the day, no wind.
Our count area is a 15 mile diameter circle with the center point located near the intersection of Dowell Rd and Redwood Hwy (near Grange COOP) - South to Murphy area, North to JOCO Airport, East to Jackson County line, West to Wilderville.
Several dozen socially distanced volunteers inventoried the 11 different sections within the circle or watched bird feeders in their yards. This is the 38th year of our count, which began in 1983. Fran Taylor has been doing her section (SW Grants Pass and Upper/Lower Roads loop) 15 years or so. She only missed one year of the count since we started. Probably Dennis Vroman has never missed a Grants Pass Christmas Bird Count.
On count day, 19 Dec 2020, we counted 9,799 individual birds of 102 bird species. Our highest species number ever was 109 in 1986 and 1997, and the average number of birds seen each count is close to 17,000, so we were a little low again this year. Some years, some bird species decide to congregate in large numbers in the Rogue Valley, and some years they don't. Perhaps we have a mild fall/winter or food supplies are better here in our valley than elsewhere, and birds decide to stay in larger numbers -- in 2001, we counted 25,000 American Robins - this year, 504. In 38 years we have counted over 637,000 individuals of 180 different species (some are rarely seen in the Rogue Valley).
Interesting observations were: Red-naped Sapsucker (1), Pileated Woodpeckers (3), Redhead Duck (2), Barn Owl (3), Northern Pygmy Owl (2), and Bald Eagle (3). Ring-necked Pheasant were counted in double digits up to the turn of the century, but are rarely recorded now (one or none per year since 2005 - none the last two years). The invasive Eurasian Collared Doves were first counted in 2007 (8), and were most numerous in 2018, at 201 (this year 118). Red-shouldered Hawks extended their range into SW Oregon and our count circle in the early 1990s, and were first counted in 1994 (1), and numbered 18 on this count. We started with just 23 Canada Geese in 1983, and saw 1,278 this year, again our most common bird; in 2003 we counted close to 3,000. Mallards were the most common duck this year (203), and Ring-necked Duck and American Wigeon both came in 2nd with 172. We recorded 346 American Coots, 123 Wild Turkeys, 575 American Crows, 141 Black-capped Chickadees, 1,167 European Starlings, 170 Western Scrub Jays, 286 Brewer's Blackbirds, and 963 Dark-eyed Juncos. Acorn Woodpeckers are always the most common woodpeckers: 193 this year.
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Anna's Hummingbird - Lee Webb | Red-headed Duck - Zia Fukada | American Coot - Mike Nelson |
 |
 |
 |
| Northern Pygmy Owl with Pine Siskin - Zia Fukada | Spotted Towhee - Lee Webb | Female Red-naped Sapsucker - Zia Fukada |