We ran the 46th Folsom Christmas Bird Count on 29 December 2024. It rained during the first half of the day and was windy all day. Yet, we had 68 people in 33 parties, covering 348 miles (140 on foot--a little farther than last year in much better conditions!) in 196 party hours. We ended up with 136 species, within a historical range of 123 to 149, and a total of 27,657 birds. This is the first time we fell below 140 species since 2012. Given the conditions, things were quite slow and highlights were few, but at the compilation gathering nobody said they would have rather stayed home.

We found geese that are missable on this count (Greater White-fronts and Cackling), missed Tundra Swans, and had 45 invasive Mute Swans. Duck numbers and diversity were quite low. One Northern Pintail saved us from missing that species, and typical divers were only represented by Ring-necked Ducks (59). Having more Buffleheads (180) than Common Goldeneyes (167) is a surprise. Barrow's Goldeneyes have been scarce the last two years, and we only picked up three.

Wild Turkeys, at 175, continue for several years now to be at a fraction of the 500-800 on counts from 15 to 20 years ago. We had 131 Horned Grebes, only 62 Eared, 232 Westerns, but only 15 identified as Clark's Grebes. All of our rails came from a single pond, with five Virginia Rails and just one Sora. Shorebirds were more sparse than usual, and we nearly missed Wilson's Snipe (only three). Among just over 6,800 total gulls--85% were Californias--we had one Short-billed (Mew) Gull, two Iceland (Thayer's) Gulls, and three Glaucous-winged Gulls. We found one Pacific Loon and only four Common Loons, turned up only one Green Heron, and missed Black-crowned Night-Heron.

For raptors, we found one Osprey, one Golden Eagle, 11 Bald Eagles (trying not to double count), four Ferruginous Hawks, and one Rough-legged Hawk. We found three Merlins, two Prairie Falcons, and three Peregrine Falcons. We had one Barn Owl, one Burrowing Owl, missed Western Screech-Owl (count week), and found one Northern Pygmy-Owl. The weather kept us to just four Great Horned Owls despite two parties owling.

We tallied 234 Anna's Hummingbirds and set a new count record of 466 White-throated Swifts--most of the swifts were recorded toward the end of the day, shortly before they went to roost, and when the weather had improved. Only ten Lewis's Woodpeckers and one Hairy Woodpecker were found.

Loggerhead Shrikes were back on the list, with two, though we found just three Hutton's Vireos. We missed Steller's Jay and had a dismal 13 Yellow-billed Magpies. Hard to fathom, but we recorded (trying to avoid double-counting) more ravens than crows: 83 to 78. No swallows were detected, but three Golden-crowned Kinglets and six Marsh Wrens were nice pickups. A Varied Thrush was a surprise in a season where this species is hard to come by. American Robins were light at only 282--less than a quarter of what we found last year. More encouraging were 677 Western Bluebirds, 607 Oak Titmouses, and 646 Lesser Goldfinches.

We had just ten Purple Finches, and a single Pine Siskin was a nice find. Three Chipping Sparrows were found, and also one Bell's Sparrow. Fox Sparrows were scarce, with just ten, but one was a Red Fox Sparrow. Sparrows in general were down, partly weather-related, but Fox Sparrows have been in low numbers for two years in a row, and Golden-crowned Sparrows have been in lower than expected numbers this season. Western Meadowlarks, surprisingly, were up substantially from last year to 568. We didn't miss Tricolored Blackbirds this year, tallying 15. We recorded six Orange-crowned Warblers, a species much harder to come by around Folsom than on the Sacramento or Rio Cosumnes CBCs, but we did miss Common Yellowthroat and any other warbler besides Yellow-rumped.

Thanks to all of the participants and especially the area leaders! Let's hope for better conditions next year.