The annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) brings together advanced and novice birders to survey all the birds in their community. Below are a few stories and photos from some of the Christmas Bird Counts conducted by our California chapters.

Eastern Sierra Audubon

The 34th annual Bishop Christmas Bird Count was held December 19, 2015, a nearly windless though chilly day, clear in the morning and overcast in the afternoon with temperatures ranging from 11°F to 45°F. An excellent turnout of 61 birders in 12 teams tallied 101 species with a total of 12,310 individual birds. Overall bird numbers and diversity were average, with many teams reporting fewer birds than in recent years.

Mount Diablo Audubon

On December 16th, I joined Gwen Santos and Kathy Robertson of Ohlone Audubon for Mount Diablo Audubon's annual East Contra Costa County Christmas Bird Count. Our all female team scouted Los Vaqueros Reservoir on a solar powered boat! We saw 49 different species including a Bald Eagle, three Loggerhead Shrikes, a Belted Kingfisher, a Clark's Grebe, some Barrow's Goldeneye, two calling Ospreys and lots of coots and gulls.

San Diego Audubon

The San Diego Union Tribune covered their Christmas Bird Count.

San Fernando Valley Audubon

San Fernando Valley covered 10 areas within their count circle, involved many birders and then attended the Birds and Beer to share numbers and experiences. The weather  was perfect until about 3:30 when the rain came down, just in time to get indoors for pizza!  The species count totaled 112 species.

Yolo Audubon

Birders saw many savannah sparrows along with the golden-crowns after missing them for many years. The count circle as a whole has had the highest numbers in the US for several woodpecker species/forms in recent years - red-breasted sapsucker and red-shafted flicker last year, and Nuttall's and acorn woodpecker in the past.