St. David, AZ Christmas Bird Count
Every year a nationwide bird count takes place during a two week period from mid-December through early January. Birders of all levels have the opportunity to participate in this count which takes place over 24 hours on an assigned day. For us, the St. David Count took place on December 19. Luckily we happen to live within the “count circle” (15 miles in diameter), the center of which is near the town of St. David. Even luckier is that the Coronado National Forest is in part of this circle so not only do we watch our feeding station but we get to bird the beautiful canyons and grasslands of the nearby forest lands.
The morning started off clear and cold — 24 degrees to be exact. But, unlike the previous week, it was calm and sunny as we began our drive up West Stronghold Canyon.
The Dragoons from West Stronghold Canyon Road
The canyon is rich in diversity not to mention scenic views. The mesquite grassland where we live transitions into riparian habitat populated by sycamores, oaks, Piñon Pine, Alligator Juniper and Arizona Cypress. The understory is rich with Manzanita, Madrone, Arizona Rosewood and berry-laden hackberries to name a few. The hackberries were the trees we paid most attention to as they were bird magnets.
West Stronghold Canyon
The bird of the day for me was the beautiful male Olive Warbler, Peucedramus taeniatus, (alas no photos) with its bright orange head and black streak though the eyes. Life bird # 576! The Townsend’s and Black-throated Gray Warblers chasing each other around an oak tree were not bad either. We encountered an amazing number of Cedar Waxwings (113) and thoroughly enjoyed finding a good number of Western Bluebirds plus a few Townsend’s Solitaires.
We walked a short distance up the trail from the Stronghold Canyon trailhead to check for bird activity but, as it turned out, there was none so we didn’t spend any more time on the trail.
View of the Dragoons from Stronghold Canyon Trail
Climbers call this formation “Squaretop” but we like to call it “Elephant Rock” as it reminds us of the back of an elephant.
We took a midday break to check our feeders and then headed southeast to the Council Rocks area. This is an oak grassland which could potentially yield different species than the canyon. We did find a Rock Wren, Ladderback Woodpecker and sparrows including over 180 Chipping Sparrows! We had to work hard to find even one Mourning Dove.
The Council Rocks area is so scenic I thought you might enjoy these photos:
We ended the day with 47 species and a total of 713 birds counted. We’re already looking forward to next year’s count!
On a closing note, we’ve been having some pretty spectacular sunsets lately. This photo was taken on the evening of December 22 from our house. One day after the shortest day of the year.
Sunset behind Treaty Hill
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