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Sierra Vista is located at the base of the Huachuca Mountains - one of Arizona's "Sky Islands", about 70 miles South East of Tucson.

Map Area

Sierra Vista abuts historic Fort Huachuca, and is a few miles from the nation's first Riparian National Conservation Area, the San Pedro River [26], and The Nature Conservancy's hummingbird mecca, the Ramsey Canyon Preserve [27]. Other sites close by include French Joe Canyon [23], Sierra Vista Environmental Operations Park [25], Carr Canyon [28], Beatty's Orchard [29], Miller Canyon [30], Coronado National Memorial [31], and Parker Canyon Lake [32].

Ramsey Canyon Christmas Bird Count (CBC)

The 2011 Ramsey Canyon Christmas Bird Count (RCCBC) was held on Saturday, December 17, 2011. The species total came to 145. See the summary below for further details. The 2012 RCCBC will be held on Saturday, December 22, 2012. Mark your calendars!

Looking for points of contact for the next RCCBC? Blue Arrow Learn more...

NEW FORMS!  The Checklist ( PDF, DOC ) of bird species and the Party Hours/Miles Form ( PDF, DOC ) can be printed for use during the bird count.   If you see an unusual bird during the count, you can print the official CBC Rare Bird Form. In order to find out what birds are typically seen during the count, please also consult the Species List for the Ramsey Canyon Christmas Bird Count.

Visit the National Audubon Society CBC web site for comprehensive information about the Christmas Bird Count, including history, objectives, and results. You can also visit the Arizona Field Ornithologists web site to find Christmas Bird Counts in Arizona or visit the National Audubon site and get involved in other counts outside Arizona.

The Count Circle

Shown below is a clickable Google Map of the count circle covering portions of Sierra Vista (upper left), Huachuca Mountains (lower left), San Pedro River (right), and Palominas (lower right).

RCCBC Area

2011 Ramsey Canyon Christmas Bird Count Results

2011 was a year of change for our CBC. Several long-time participants moved or passed away this year. Among the latter were Denny Hodson, Pat Nagle, and Bill Stocku. All will be missed. The first half of the year also saw several extreme environmental "events", including an exceptionally dry winter and spring, a record freeze in early February, and the Monument Fire.

As one would expect, the dry conditions, hard freeze, and fire had a significant impact on our count this year. The total number of species recorded, 145, is the lowest since 1998, but given the low number of birds in the canyons, its still a very respectable number and the total number of birds counted, 15,664, is well above our 12-year average.

Species diversity and number of birds remained about average along the river. In the canyons, all but one of which, within our circle, were burned this year, diversity and numbers were considerably reduced from past years. But, in the mesquite grasslands and oak savannah areas, grassland bird species and numbers were as high and in some cases higher than last year's high numbers. Likewise, raptor numbers were well above average in the grassland areas and as always, the EOP was a hot-spot.

Because the CBC website continues to experience problems, I can't give you all the information on high counts this year, although Peregrine Falcon, White-winged Dove, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Chipping Sparrow, Pyrrhuloxia, and Hepatic Tanager recorded record or near record high numbers. I can list some of the more interesting species from this year's RCCBC. These include, Ferruginous Hawk, Sandhill Crane (only the 3rd time recorded on the RCCBC), Least Sandpiper, Ruddy Ground-Dove (only our 8th time recorded), White-throated Swift, Blue-throated Hummingbird, Costa's Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Elegant Trogon, Gilded Flicker, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend's Solitaire, Sage Thrasher, Townsend's Warbler, Botteri's Sparrow, Black-chinned Sparrow, Cassin's Sparrow, Hepatic Tanager, Scott's Oriole, Cassin's Finch, and Lawrence's Goldfinch. In fact, we reported 7 Hepatic Tanager this year, continuing a recent trend upward in the numbers of these birds wintering in our area. Of equal interest are some of the birds we did not see, several of which we almost always report: Golden Eagle, Montezuma Quail, Williamson's Sapsucker, Vermillion Flycatcher, Pygmy Nuthatch, House Wren, Yellow-eyed Junco, and American Goldfinch. We also had record or near record lows for Hutton's Vireo, Phainopepla, and Hermit Thrush. Attached is the complete list.

I want to thank the 71 participants in this year's count, which included the addition of 11 new participants. I believe we now pretty effectively cover the area of the count circle. When I look at the data, one thing that jumps out at me is that just about every team and even many of our feeder watchers reported at least one species either not seen by anyone else, or reported by only one other team/person. Each of you makes a significant contribution.

The next RCCBC will be held on 22 Dec. Erika Wilson is working on stream-lining and updating our bird checklist, which we will use during next year's count.

Thanks again for your continuing participation and have a great 2012.

Ted Mouras Compiler RCCBC

For details of any Audubon Christmas Bird Count, please visit the CBC website at http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/.

(NOTE: Adobe Acrobat Reader available free from Adobe for reading PDF files)

Vermilion Flycatcher Image Last updated: 31 January 2012 by REW.