Last Saturday, January 4, was the 3rd CBC that I have celebrated my retirement as compiler. I love retirement. I get all of the fun and none of the worry!
Because I’ve been helping with the CBC from the early 1980s, and was compiler from 1994-2010, this time of year has always been special for me. It’s a chance to get away from the craziness of Christmas shopping and focus on the natural world of birds!
Conditions were tough going into the Count.
We are in the midst of a serious drought. For the second year in a row, and even worse than last winter, the stubborn Pacific High has blocked any storms and the jet stream remains far to the north.
The foothills lie brown and pockmarked with gopher holes. The annual grasses are dormant, waiting for that first winter rain. I don’t ever recall a year when there were no blooming Eucalyptus trees to attract orioles, tanagers or warblers. But this is what happened.
For awhile it seemed as though it would be the worst winter bird census we’d ever had.
That was until somebody realized that a common street tree (native to South America)– the Tipuana tipu — was newly infested with psyllids. Tipu psyllids are tiny winged insects that lay their eggs on the leaves of tipu trees. The eggs hatch into nymphs. The nymphs grow and develop through several stages. As they grow, they exude ‘honeydew’ otherwise known as nymph ‘poop’. The tiny white honeydew crystals are sticky, and they fall to the ground — making the cars parked underneath them stained with gooey drops.
It was Paul Lehman who mentioned this to me –the tipu tree phenomenon–as he was scouting for the San Diego CBC held earlier in December. When I shared this with the birding listserve, every birder in Santa Barbara became aware that these tipu trees might hold birds.
And so they did.
Jared Dawson, one of the co-compilers for the S.B. CBC, in an inspired moment contacted the City of S.B. to get a list of the locations of various planted street trees. Yes, such a list does exist!
And then every business park and downtown parking lot that we could find was being scoured by local birders.
Townsend’s Warblers were the most numerous species to visit the tipus. These lovely yellow and black warblers were gleaning the insects from the leaves. Sometimes they could be found on the ground beneath the trees, presumably eating the nymphs that had become dislodged and fallen down. Oblivious to human disturbance, the Townsend’s fed like crazy on the protein-rich insects. Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers joined in the feeding frenzy. Sometimes Ruby-crowned Kinglets, too. But mostly warblers came to the tipu feast.
By birding the tipu trees, we also located rare and out of range warblers. A Black-and-white Warbler was in the big tipu trees at Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. A Lucy’s Warbler was in the tipu trees in a parking lot across the street from Sansum clinic on Pesetas Lane.
At least the phenomenon provided a new direction as we searched for all the birds we could find in preparation for the Christmas Bird Count.
I don’t think I can remember a Count Day that had as perfect weather as that of January 4th. A high overcast kept the day cool. Birds tend to be more active into the mid-day hours if it’s cooler. Absolutely no wind makes the birds easier to spot, so that was another plus. In short, beginning with owling at midnight and ending with a long, still afternoon goes down as ideal conditions for bird counting.
Here in Montecito, I had help from several groups of birders. Somebody did the coastal strip down by the Biltmore Hotel, others did Upper and Lower Manning Park, and still others birded between Coast Village Road and Hot Springs Rd.
I had a lot of fun because there were no “stake outs” in Montecito. It meant that there were no target birds that I had found previously that needed to be tallied on Count Day. Hooray!
This was a great time to just go birding and count my areas of Montecito on a beautiful day. I walked along marking my notebook recording the birds as I went.
Every corner of Montecito holds memories of past years and past Christmas Bird Counts. Up on Woodley and Glenview Roads I remember the Bell’s Vireo that popped out of a hedge one Count morning. I still recall the Orchard Oriole and the Tennessee Warbler found down by the railroad tracks behind the Biltmore. Then there was the Worm-eating Warbler that hung out in the Music Academy grounds near the reflecting pool and returned for three years in a row!
Several years ago right here at my house, I counted a little female Costa’s Hummingbird that fed at the purple and white salvia bush in the backyard. I identified the hummer by the delicate metallic “tink” call it uttered as it zoomed around.
And another year, amidst an absolute deluge of rain, a Red-naped Sapsucker appeared at the pepper tree out front. It flew in regularly at 9 am, which on that day was right before the sky dropped buckets for 3 straight hours on Count Day!
I’ve had a White-throated Sparrow, and a Black-headed Grosbeak at my feeder that got counted in years past.
But enough history……
My Count Day in 2014 was filled with all the common birds I know and love. I am a fan of getting to a good birding spot and “pishing” to attract the birds and stir them up a bit. If I can get the kinglets scolding, it brings in other species, curious to find out what the disturbance is about. One special place (which happened to be underneath one of the few tipu trees in Montecito) held 8 Townsend’s Warblers, 10 Yellow-rumps, 4 or 5 Orange-crowned Warblers, 2 Oak Titmice, 5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a White-breasted Nuthatch, a Northern Mockingbird, and a Bewick’s Wren — all responding to one crazy birder out counting birds on a special day!
I love the Christmas Bird Count!
