End of year birding thoughts
- Bruce Glick: Gone Birding
- December 27, 2020
- 1707
Another year is coming to an end, a year unlike any we have experienced in the past.
Helen and I spent January and February in Southern Arizona. Most days we could be found hiking up canyons, along trails and visiting birding hotspots. There are always interesting birds in the Tucson area, and this year was no exception. We tracked down a rose-throated becard not far from Green Valley, where we were staying.
I added two new birds to my U.S. list while in Arizona. First was a rufous-backed robin that was visiting pyracantha bushes near Tubac for most of the winter. The location was only 30 minutes from Green Valley. I spent several hours and three visits to the area until the thrush finally showed up. It was surprisingly shy, staying out of sight most of the time.
Late in February, Helen and I drove up to the Phoenix area for a day. We looked for and found a small flock of ruddy ground doves that were wintering at a farmstead southwest of town. Phoenix has several excellent birding sites including the Gilbert Water Ranch, which has several lakes and lots of hiking paths. It was a great place to find water birds, some of which were new for me in Arizona.
Just down the road from Green Valley is a new birding location called Canoa Ranch. This location features a lovely pond and miles of hiking along the Santa Cruz River. During 2020 there have been many rare birds sighted there. We saw some, but others were found during the summer and fall. In general, Southern Arizona had an exceptional year for rare birds.
We drove home at the beginning of March, just in time for the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. I had already agreed to join three other birders in the Goshen area for the Meadowlark Area Spring Birding Contest. This three-month spring contest drew a lot of local teams, all of them trying to find as many species as possible in the eight-county Meadowlark Area. The birding was different this year because I had already decided not to travel with any other birders. We would meet at a birding location, wear masks and stay at least 6 feet apart as we birded.
The spring contest was a big success. There were three teams that ended up with about the same number of birds. Our team found 232 species, four more than we had located any other year but still two less than the winning team. It was lots of fun, and many unusual birds were discovered including Smith’s longspurs and a lark bunting. Unfortunately, there were no northern finches last winter.
The birding slowed down after spring migration. Breeding bird surveys were not done this year, the first time that has happened as far as I know. However, there were birders working on big years, and they kept searching for new birds all during the summer and fall. Results for 2020 will soon be in, and new records are likely.
Christmas bird counts are currently being held in many places. Hopefully, birders are being careful. I will report the totals from area counts sometime in January.
During 2020 there have been some distressing reports, documenting the dramatic loss of birds in recent decades. Combined with four years of roll-backs of crucial programs that protect birds, wildlife and wild places, it has been a difficult year for all of us that love the natural world. Hopefully, many such policies will be reversed in 2021, providing hope for the birds and for our fragile environment.
Good birding in 2021.
Bruce Glick can be emailed at Bglick2@gmail.com.