THE FOLLOWING SPECIES WERE SEEN ON COUNT DAY (in approximate order of interest):

1 Rusty Blackbird at Buccaneer Park

1 Summer Tanager Little Gopher Canyon Road Sector 4ab

1 Zone-tailed Hawk Camp Pendleton Golf Course 

1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker adult male, Guajome Park campground wedding gazebo

1 Red-naped Sapsucker Gopher Canyon North Sector 4ab

1 Eurasian Wigeon Easy Street Pond Palomar College Sector 3

1 White-throated Sparrow Batiquitos Lagoon 

1 Common Goldeneye Buena Vista Lagoon

1 Black-throated Gray Warbler Guajome Adobe 

1 Greater White-fronted Goose La Costa Golf Course pond #2 on Alga Rd

1 Cassin’s Vireo Bonsall/Morro Hill Sector 14

1 Plumbeous Vireo Guajome Park campground

1 Pomarine Jaeger Pelagic

1 Parasitic Jaeger Pelagic 

1 Rock Wren pulled out of the hat late in the day in a quarry in the Lake San Marcos Sector 2b.  Cactus, Rock and Canyon Wrens are getting more and more difficult as habitat is asphalted

1 Lesser Yellowlegs "next to the Greater Yellowlegs"   Santa Margarita River mouth, Camp Pendleton

1 Reddish Egret  Santa Margarita River mouth Camp Pendleton

2 Cactus Wren One found in Cam Pendleton (after 5.5 hours!) and one at CamPen's Windmill Lake

2 Ross's Goose Guajome Lake

2 Western Tanager Brengle Terrace Park - Vista

2 Red-breasted Sapsucker Gopher Canyon North Sector 4ab (1); Guajome Lake (1)

2 Pine Siskin Bonsall/Morro Hill Sector 14

2 Western Screech-Owl seen and heard at 7:30 p.m. at Dawson Creek in Sector 5

3 Hooded Merganser Guajome Lake Sector

3 Black and White Warbler Rancho Carlsbad Golf Course Sector 6 (1); Agua Hedionda (1); Guajome park Campground

3 Yellow Warbler

3 Wilson’s Warbler  Riparian woods behind Mission Meadows Elem School - Guajome Lake Area

3 Bullock's Oriole  Brengle Terrace Park - Vista (2); Buena Vista Lagoon (1)

4 Common Murre Pelagic

7 White-breated Nuthatch Little Gopher Canyon Sector 4ab (2); Gopher Canyon South Sector 4cd (1), Morro Hill/Bonsall Sector 14 (3); CamPen Sector 18c (1)

7 Least Bittern  Calavera Lake (3); Buena Vista Lagoon (4)

7 Rhino Auklet Pelagic

9 Mountain Chickadee  Two near the coast:  Batiquitos Lagoon (1) and Buena Vista Lagoon (1).  Also Guajome Lake (2); Brengle Terrace Park - Vista (3); Bonsall/Morro Hill Sector 14 (1); Windmill Lake CamPen Sector 18c (1).

12 Oak Titmouse  Little Gopher Canyon (10); Gopher Canyon South sector 4cd (2).

20-23 Allen’s or Rufous/Allen’s Hummingbird  Allen's is expanding rapidly into residential areas planted with Cape Honeysuckle.  Just two years ago one Allen's was seen.  Last year we counted 16.  Guy McCaskie reported at the “Sacred Reading Of The List” that Selasphorus hummingbirds are now wintering all the way down to Imperial Beach!

50 Cattle Egret  While the number may appear high, the only Cattle Egrets seen on count day was a group of 50 flying over San Luis Rey Golf Course Bonsall Sector 14.  This species was miseed entirely in 2002, 2005 and 2007.

73 Cassin’s Auklet  Pelagic

The following species were MISSED on count day:

Fox Sparrow:  missed for the first time.

Peregrine Falcon: usually one to three seen each year - last missed in 1999.

Canyon Wren:  Only one per year seen from 2003-2006.  Missed in 2007 and 2008.

Thayer’s Gull:  1-2 reported on 5 of the past 11 counts. Seen in 2006 & 2007.

Other species not seen (but historically irregular or declining due to habitat decimation):  Snow Goose, Black Turnstone, Mew Gull, Lawrence's Goldfinch.

Thank You!

Thank you to all who participated.  More than 125 counters stopped by the Buena Vista Audubon Nature Center for the thank-you lunch and “The Sacred Reading Of The List.”  A big thank you goes to Annette Schneider and the Buena Vista Audubon volunteers for hosting, feeding and cleaning up after our hungry happy crowd.  A big thank you, too, goes to the Sector Leaders who scouted and found some really good birds up here in North County, and to Ann Hannon for helping enter the reporting sector counts into the master spreadsheet.  A big thank you, too, to Dave Povey for 33 years of Oceanside Pelagic service!