Saturday December 26th was the chosen date for the Flagstaff CBC, and the long morning was spent with temperatures in the 20s F and windchills around zero. It felt as cold as it did on the 17-below morning in 2010!
We spent the morning driving the usual route around the golf course, lightly covered in snow from Friday morning's storm. We saw no wigeon on the golf course (and just a few on the lakes) although Canada Geese were present in good numbers. There were no special geese among them. We had a good diversity of ducks, including a male Common Goldeneye. We also saw at least two Bald Eagles. We saw all the expected small birds and also a single "Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler and three Red-naped Sapsuckers.
We then drove the back road out to Walnut Canyon, finding over 100 Dark-eyed Juncos along the road and then 100 Common Raven standing in the trees as we reached the road to the monument. A single Lewis's Woodpecker was the highlight of the drive.
The monument itself, often dull, delivered a number for birds for the count including an unexpected flock of Clark's Nutcrackers (at least 8 individuals), a Hermit Thrush and a Peregrine. We also saw the expected Western Bluebirds and a Townsend's Solitaire.
On the road back into town we finally saw a Red-tailed Hawk, and a stop by the Purina plant gave us at least 200 Feral (Rock) Pigeons and at least 500 European Starlings swirling around, making their exact number uncountable.
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