BY LAURA BERKELMAN
Santa Fe Audubon
MELROSE—The 33rd annual Christmas Bird Count of the Melrose Circle occurred on Dec. 15, as 61 participants fanned out across our assigned 15-mile diameter circle centered at the intersection of State Road 100 and County Road 219.
The area extends from Florahome to Earleton and Melrose Landing to Camp Blanding and the Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park.
Eighteen teams of volunteers in cars, on foot and in boats spent the day surveying the birds in as many portions of this big circle as we could cover.
Exciting finds this year included a virtual cloud of American Robins with an estimated flock size of 100,000 individuals, the rare Field Sparrow, and a very late-season Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Especially disappointing was the fact that no one spotted a Green Heron.
The final species count of 113 beat the average and tied for eighth place in the 33-year history of the local count but dropped from last year’s historical high of 132 species.
However, thanks to those Robins, we set a record for the highest number of individual birds: While 122,718 individual birds were recorded by all teams, surpassing the previous count of 28,842 set in 2021, only 112,556 individuals will be reported.
Robins seemed to be everywhere! Every one of the 18 reporting teams spotted American Robins. In fact, they recorded 10,201 robins in addition to that giant cloud. And it’s unusual for 100% of the teams to see any one species. The next closest was 16 teams reporting Northern Cardinals. But since counts of large fast-moving groups are necessarily estimates and since some birds almost certainly cross from one territory to another, data reported to National Audubon and Cornell University is rounded to the nearest level of magnitude. In other words, 110,201 American Robins are reported as 100,000. 3,016 Ring-billed Gulls are reported as 3,000, and so on.
Although we never know if a decline in the species count is due to an overall decline in species populations or just the conditions of a particular survey – the weather, the number and skill level of the participants – we do know that the rain reduced the effective hours of people in the field this year.
Santa Fe Audubon Society would like to thank the many private property owners who allow us to visit their properties to conduct this annual survey.
Christmas bird count by the numbers:
First-place year- species counted:132 in 2021; individual birds counted: 112,556 in 2022; number of observers: 71 in 2021.
Second-place year- species counted: 126 in 2020; individual birds counted: 28,842 in 2020; number of observers: 64 in 2019 (tie).
Third-place year- species counted: 123 in 2019; individual birds counted: 20,458 in 2021; number of observers: 64 in 2020.
2022 bird count: species counted: 113 for 8th place; individual birds counted: 112,556 for first place; number of observers: 61 for 4th place.
