December started very dry (and ended the year being one of the five driest on record) but got quite wet the end of the month. Luckily Saturday 12/31 was dry, if cold, which made wandering around for 7.5 hours easier for not having to have a billed hat or an umbrella to contend with. I didn’t even need hand warmers this time (although I packed them) and didn’t even need gloves for the first couple of hours, though the low was 28° F yesterday and never got more than 34 or 36.

Here are the overall statistics:

7.5 hours (not including a lunch break, nor time at Peet’s before to organize or after to tally the counts from the different groups)
5.8 miles
843 individual birds (60 more than last year)
27 species (one less than last year)

The details:

42 Canada Goose/ sp.
2 Red-tailed Hawk
4 Gull sp.
11 Mourning Dove
10 Anna’s Hummingbird
2 Red-breasted Sapsucker
6 Downy Woodpecker
11 Northern Flicker
11 Steller’s Jay
19 Western Scrub Jay
86 American Crow
58 Black-capped Chickadee
8 Chestnut-sided Chickadee
75 Bushtit
12 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 Bewick’s Wren
7 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
150 American Robin
9 Varied Thrush
23 European Starling
15 Spotted Towhee
29 Song Sparrow
129 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)
1 Purple Finch
18 House Finch
103 Lesser Goldfinch

The surprises/disappointments:

It seemed there were fewer birds out. It was cold in the morning & those we saw where fat with fluffed feathers. No owls, no cedar waxwings, no Townsend’s warblers, few thrush, no piliated woodpecker, no evening grossbeak. Sparrows were down, geese (sp) were down, no Coopers. Jays were down, and there were more scrub this year than Stellars. Black-capped chickadee numbers were way down.

Numbers that were up: robins, tons of robins, and crows, and lesser goldfinch. So much so that I think we must have recounted many birds (how to determine which to count is troubling with no easy answer). There was a big increase in mourning doves (as there are in my own back yard).

We did see a purple finch this year, as well as a ruby-crowned kinglet (for sure!) and several downy woodpeckers. We also saw starlings, which were surprisingly absent last year.

Amazing sighting? An albino robin. I hope my team mate can send a better photo because my zoom stopped working on my little worn out camera. Auuughhhh! All those robins we were tired of counting (who can really say that, ever??!!) and here is one more. A bright white robin with a yellow beak. Gorgeous harbinger for a beautiful year, I hope. And I hope the dear has good long life.

Yes! It is a white robin, I swear.

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