2023 Winter Raptor Survey — Linda Moore, Compiler

Eight of the nine winter raptor survey routes were run in January, with one being canceled due to inclement weather and poor road conditions. These routes are registered with the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA). If GPS information is provided, routes are entered into the database on their website. The data is then available for researchers or anyone to use. Access to the data can be found at www.hmana.org by clicking on research -> winter raptor survey-> view recent surveys.  Any of the surveys in New Mexico are the ones run here, covering a large area from the Arizona border into Otero County. A typical route takes most of a day to complete, and runs anywhere between 100 to 200 miles or even more.

The routes are typically run on the weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but this year the weather made some adjustments necessary. Still, there was a good showing of raptors, with a total of 253 raptors counted. The most numerous species, not surprisingly, is the red-tailed hawk, with 135 counted this year. American kestrels were the second most numerous with 81 counted. Other species seen were Northern harriers, Sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks, Ferruginous, Bald and Golden eagles, Prairie falcons and Merlins. Our Otero county friend observed two Harris’ hawks, while a White-tailed kite was seen in the Bootheel, not the first time one has been seen there.

Greater roadrunners and Loggerhead shrikes are also counted as ‘honorary raptors’ since their habits are certainly prey based. These data are not entered into the database, but included just for fun. This year seven roadrunners were seen, and 21 shrikes. The shrike number is uncommonly low, as 69 were seen in 2020 as a high number with around 40 as the average seen yearly.

2022 SILVER CITY CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT — John Gorey, Compiler

2022 was the 61st year the Silver City CBC was conducted. Weather was very cold early on but temperatures rebounded quickly and it was a pleasant sunny day. A total of 42 people participated with 29 along the 11 established routes and 13 people doing feeder counts.

2022: Species Count - 93 | Individual Birds - 6364

2021: Species Count - 85| Individual Birds - 5755

2020: Species Count - 106 | Individual Birds - 7490

Species counts were up 9%, and individuals were up 11% from 2021. This is an increase from the average by around 20%. Sometime in the future I will do a comparison of this increasing trend and the survey effort data to get a more accurate picture of how bird numbers have changed in the area. Rare birds were in fact rare in 2022.

Here is a list of unusual birds and count numbers from this year’s count:

Species | 2022 count | Average | Notes

Dark-eyed Junco | 232 | 584 | Second lowest count ever

Mexican Jay | 141 | 49 | Record high

Marsh Wren | 1 | <1 | First record since 2006

Rufous Hummingbird | 2 | <1 | 6th record

Belted Kingfisher | 4 | 1 | Record high

Black Phoebe | 8 | 2 | Record high

Woodhouse's Scrub Jay | 250 | 54 | Record high

Rock Wren | 14 | 2 | Record high by a lot

Cactus Wren | 19 | 5 | Record high by a lot

Townsend's Solitaire | 40 | 9 | Record high

Vesper Sparrow| 36 | 7 | Record high

Savannah Sparrow | 39 | 7 | Record high

As noted in the table, most Jay species had record years, as did wrens. Townsend’s Solitaire and Black Phoebes also had unusually high numbers. Dark-eyed Juncos were remarkably absent during the count. White-crowned sparrows which are often trending similar to Juncos were actually far above average in 2022.

Thank you to everyone who participated this year! We hope to see even more participants in the years to come! Stay tuned for a more detailed report in the following weeks. 

Access the full report here.

 

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