Christmas Bird Counts

It’s Christmas Bird Count time again and I’ve taken part in two surveys so far. Yesterday it was the Green Valley / Madera Canyon CBC, and today it was Patagonia’s turn.

I didn’t find anything especially rare or unusual on either count, but CBCs are always fun, and they offer a good opportunity to get into places you wouldn’t normally bird. I covered the same area for the Green Valley count as the past two years, a large chunk of desert with a section of pecan groves adjacent to the Santa Cruz River. For the Patagonia count, I was dispatched to the eastern end of the San Rafael Valley and the edge of the Canelo Hills, a particularly beautiful area.