Hello Atascosa Highlanders,

I want to thank everyone who came out to cover the immense area contained within the Atascosa Highlands CBC circle.  True, we technically have the same number of square miles as every other CBC in the world, but most of ours doesn't have good road access!  So thanks for making the effort, no matter what section you surveyed.

Below is a copy/paste of the final numbers from Excel.  If this doesn't render properly in your browser, let me know and I can send it to you individually.  We tallied 131 species, which is on par for this count circle.  This year we had 68 observers, a pretty reasonable turnout for such a remote area.

The big news is that we added two species to the all-time list for the Atascosa Highlands CBC: Nutting's Flycatcher (in the Warsaw/Holden Canyon area) and Rufous-capped Warbler (Rock Corral Canyon)!  Congrats to the teams that picked up those unique species.  The Nutting's Flycatcher represents the 4th occurrence for the species in Arizona and is only the 6th record for the United States.  Not new for the count circle but very much noteworthy was a Least Grebe found on Bear Grass Tank.

We also set 11 records for all-time high counts within the CBC circle.  These species were: Common Merganser (35 individuals), Sharp-shinned Hawk (15), Sora (7), Great Horned Owl (21), Dusky Flycatcher (21), Eastern Phoebe (4), House Wren (53), Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (89), Black-capped Gnatcher (13?!), Common Yellowthroat (9), and Lincoln's Sparrow (293).  A special note on two of these: Rock Corral Canyon broke the record for Black-capped Gnatcatchers all on their own with 7 unique individual (previous high count for the entire circle was 3); and Arivaca Lake and Chimney Canyon broke the Lincoln's Sparrow high count all on their own (with 99 - previous high for the entire circle was 98!)

With some help from the primary compilers (Jake Mohlmann and Rich Hoyer), I hope to offer an assessment of how we did compared with the rest of the United States fairly soon.  Regardless, it's pretty neat to have a number of vagrant species from Mexico - including at least one that inspired some birders to buy plane tickets to Arizona.

Other species highlighted in yellow were noteworthy in my mind because they either came close to breaking the all-time high counts, or they're just rare within the circle or the region in general.  I'll let everyone peruse the list below, rather than summarizing that in another long paragraph.

Thanks again, and we hope to see everyone next year!  We'll try to get a date for the 2017-2018 season posted ASAP.

Good birding,

John Yerger

2016-2017 season compiler

john@adventurebirding.com

Atascosa Highland Christmas Bird Count
January 2, 2017
2	Lilac = new species to all-time list
18	Yellow = notable sightings
11	Green = new high count
Species                                                           Area	Totals
Gadwall	39
American Wigeon	48
Mallard (Northern)	27
Mallard (Mexican)	6
Northern Shoveler	22
Northern Pintail	1
Green-winged Teal	22
Redhead	13
Ring-necked Duck	81
Bufflehead	12
Common Merganser	35
Ruddy Duck	44
Gambel's Quail	52
Montezuma Quail	129
Least Grebe	1
Pied-billed Grebe	23
Eared Grebe	1
Great Blue Heron	6
Great Egret	2
Green Heron	4
Black Vulture	3
Northern Harrier	13
Sharp-shinned Hawk	15
Cooper's Hawk	7
Accipiter sp.	2
Red-tailed Hawk	38
Golden Eagle	8
American Kestrel	27
Merlin	1
Peregrine Falcon	3
Prairie Falcon	2
Sora	7
American Coot	271
Killdeer	17
Wilson's Snipe	9
Eurasian Collared-Dove	1
White-winged Dove	12
Mourning Dove	372
Inca Dove	7
Common Ground-Dove	7
Greater Roadrunner	6
Western Screech-Owl	15
Whiskered Screech-Owl	4
Great Horned Owl	21
Common Poorwill	2
White-throated Swift	19
Elegant Trogon	6
Belted Kingfisher	2
Acorn Woodpecker	50
Gila Woodpecker	109
Red-naped Sapsucker	38
sapsucker sp.	2
Ladder-backed Woodpecker	74
Arizona Woodpecker	11
Northern Flicker	87
flicker sp.	1
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet	2
Hammond's Flycatcher	4
Gray Flycatcher	75
Dusky Flycatcher	21
Empidonax sp.	5
Black Phoebe	73
Eastern Phoebe	4
Say's Phoebe	40
Vermilion Flycatcher	7
Ash-throated Flycatcher	7
Nutting's Flycatcher	1
Loggerhead Shrike	38
Hutton's Vireo	32
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay	5
Mexican Jay	301
Chihuahuan Raven	2
Common Raven	124
raven sp.	2
Bridled Titmouse	123
Verdin	117
Bushtit	58
White-breasted Nuthatch	11
Cactus Wren	14
Rock Wren	140
Canyon Wren	113
Bewick's Wren	247
House Wren	53
Marsh Wren	19
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	389
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	8
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher	89
Black-capped Gnatcatcher	13
gnatcatcher sp.	2
Eastern Bluebird	4
Western Bluebird	237
Mountain Bluebird	90
bluebird sp.	3
Townsend's Solitaire	8
Hermit Thrush	84
American Robin	9
Northern Mockingbird	57
Sage Thrasher	1
Curve-billed Thrasher	5
Crissal Thrasher	27
Phainopepla	18
Orange-crowned Warbler	4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (unknown subspecies)	39
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)	123
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	2
Black-throated Gray Warbler	7
Townsend's Warbler	8
Common Yellowthroat	9
Painted Redstart	10
Rufous-capped Warbler	2
Green-tailed Towhee	68
Spotted Towhee	23
Canyon Towhee	187
Abert's Towhee	4
Rufous-winged Sparrow	84
Cassin's Sparrow	5
Rufous-crowned Sparrow	162
Five-striped Sparrow	2
Chipping Sparrow	3071
Brewer's Sparrow	61
Black-chinned Sparrow	27
Vesper Sparrow	112
Lark Sparrow	143
Black-throated Sparrow	86
Savannah Sparrow	88
Grasshopper Sparrow	9
Song Sparrow	29
Lincoln's Sparrow	293
Swamp Sparrow	1
White-crowned Sparrow	2
White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's)	652
White-crowned Sparrow (Mountain)	2
Dark-eyed Junco (TOTAL)	443
Dark-eyed Junco (unknown type)	86
Dark-eyed Junco (Gray-headed)	111
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)	62
Dark-eyed Junco (Pink-sided)	184
Hepatic Tanager	18
Northern Cardinal	91
Pyrrhuloxia	50
Lazuli Bunting	1
Red-winged Blackbird	32
Eastern Meadowlark	20
Western Meadowlark	67
meadowlark sp.	47
House Finch	277
Lesser Goldfinch	199
House Sparrow	1
Total species	131
Total individuals	11080