Tucson CBC

I can’t remember (but could probably find out) whether my first Christmas Count was in 1977 or 1978, but with the unbridled enthusiasm of youth (now, where did I put that youth of mine?) I went for years doing 3, 4, 5 CBC’s a season. For some reason, the Count just doesn’t appeal to me as much as it used to: maybe it was all those dark December days driving around Champaign Co., Illinois, trying to find a Tree Sparrow, a Horned Lark, anything to add to the day’s list!

This year, though, Alison and I joined Beth and Darlene to cover a quadrant here in the northwest foothills. The company was good, the sector is basically our neighborhood, and though we didn’t find any real rarities, it was fun to be birding areas I usually see only in the dark or in the rearview mirror as I head out to more promising locales. Much of the day was spent along the Rillito River counting Lesser Goldfinches and House Finches, at one point flushed by a passing Prairie Falcon, but we ended in the late afternoon in Pima Wash just about a quarter mile behind our house. And wouldn’t you know it, we found two species I still don’t have on my yard list! Two Black-throated Sparrows were right where we’d left them the other day on our scouting excursion, and a flock of 13 Cedar Waxwings flew through to become the last birds of the day.