Birding Takes Off in North County

It was a particularly gray and dreary day when the band of binocular-bearing folks trickled--usually in pairs--into Escondido’s Kit Carson Park.

Many had been out since before dawn, counting birds. Now they have gathered to share chili and what they’ve seen.

Ken Weaver, president of the Palomar Audubon Society, calls out names of species. The birders who have seen the species call out their sightings. Almost everyone saw the flock of about 500 Canadian geese that took to wing somewhere near the Wild Animal Park.

The count of the most interesting birds encountered that day, which included the long-billed curlew, the Townsend’s solitaire and the bald eagle, was saved until last.

This count on the last Saturday of the year covered the San Paqual Valley, from Escondido to Ramona. It was just one of many Christmas bird counts, which are sponsored by the National Audubon Society and occur across the country during a two-week period in December.

The final results of the counts will not be available until February or March, although it’s estimated that about 200 species of birds were sighted in North County. The results will be passed on to the National Audubon Society for publication.

San Diego birders hope to be among the top in the nation in the number of species they counted.

That goal is not far-fetched. San Diego County has the distinction of playing host to more species of birds than any other county in all of North America.

The reason for the distinction lies in the county’s richly varied habitat, which attracts both visiting and resident birds. That same varied habitat also lures humans who build in the same places the birds prefer--on bluffs overlooking the Pacific and in river valleys.

Although mourning doves and killdeers find the changes wrought by humans to be quite agreeable, others, like blue-gray gnatcatchers, find their habitat increasingly inhospitable. While the fate of a 4-inch, fidgety bird may seem trivial, wildlife experts warn that the gnatcatcher’s health mirrors the health of entire ecosystems.

“Birds are sensitive indicators of environmental changes, and information about birds is important in evaluating the biological resources of an area,” says Philip Unitt, curatorial assistant in the Department of Birds and Mammals at the Natural History Museum and author of “The Birds of San Diego County.” “Many species which nest in San Diego County have declined greatly in abundance during this century.”

In his book, the first review of county birds published in more than 25 years, Unitt divides county habitat into several types: desert, peninsular mountain, lowland and coastal. One of the outstanding features of North County geography is its coastal wetlands.

“Each of the North County lagoons varies appreciably from the others,” Unitt says. “They differ in depth, amount of fresh water, type of vegetation and degree to which they have been silted.”

Most North County lagoons combine fresh and salt water habitats, and Buena Vista, Batiquitos and San Elijo, as well as the mouth of the Santa Margarita River, boast the largest numbers of birds and some of the best spots for watching birds--including terns, pelicans, herons, egrets, cormorants, ducks, gulls and grebes.

These wetlands provide important nesting areas for some species, but also essential stopping and refueling places for migratory birds.

Bird counts, separate from the Christmas counts, are held regularly at several North County lagoons. Terri Stewart, wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, and Herbert Williams, president of the Buena Vista Audubon Society, meet for the monthly bird count at Batiquitos Lagoon.

As a science, ornithology, or the study of birds, is unique, because professionals welcome the help of amateurs. In fact, many topics would never be studied at all were it not for the interest of non-professionals like Williams, a retired college professor.

On this Friday, Williams and Stewart and a handful of amateur birders fanned out and conducted the census of observed species around Batiquitos.

With the aid of binoculars and telescope, they count mallard and pintail ducks, black-necked stilts and avocets. They even spot a lone sora rail out in the open, a rare occurrence. At one point, a red-tailed hawk played tag with another bird of prey, an American kestrel.

Counting birds may seem an easy project to the uninitiated, but the best birders have years of experience not only in making visual identifications, but also knowing the habits, preferred habitats and calls of specific species.

As biologist Stewart explains, many of the endangered species in the county, like the Bell’s vireo and the clapper rail, can usually only be identified by sound.

To make matters just a little more confounding, males of a particular species often look different than females, and fledglings look different than adults. Members within a family may have subtle variations in appearance, and feathering during breeding season may change.

Another obvious frustration is that birds do not stand as do trees or wildflowers, just waiting for someone to notice them.

Members of the three county Audubon societies--Buena Vista, Palomar and San Diego--as well as San Diego Field Ornithologists (a much smaller group of the most gung-ho birders), participated in the census.

“Currently nine Christmas counts, three of which are unofficial, are held in San Diego, probably more than are conducted in any other county in the nation,” explains David King, past president of the Field Ornithologists. “The county has been divided into areas and assigned to different people. The idea is to have bird counts all over the country during a certain window of time.”

As they spread out, the census-takers expected to spot different species in different habitats:

* Along the coast, birds like snowy plover and horned lark;

* In coastal shrubs like those north of the Santa Margarita River, greater road runner and rufous-crowned sparrow;

* Among chaparral (which covers over 30% of county land and can be found surrounding Mount Palomar), scrub jay and mountain quail;

* In grassy areas like those found between Lake Henshaw and the desert, killdeer and Western meadowlark;

* In riparian woodland, narrow ribbons along rivers like the Santa Margarita and San Luis Rey, green heron and red-shouldered hawk;

* In desert terrain around Borrego Springs, Costa’s hummingbird and common raven.

None of the wild creatures that live in these richly varied habitats have remained unaffected by the dramatic building boom and the increase in human population experienced in North County in the last few years.

However, the bird species that thrive in three areas have been the most adversely affected, according to ornithologist Unitt. Those areas are the coastal strand and salt-water marshes, the coastal sage scrub (70% of which was destroyed by 1979) and the riparian woodland (which occupies less than one-half of 1% of county topography).

The endangered species list tells more of the story. Of the seven species currently included on the list, four--the light-footed clapper rail, the California least tern, the Belding’s Savannah sparrow and the least Bell’s vireo--depend upon those habitats.

“But just because a species is not listed by a federal or state bureaucracy doesn’t mean it isn’t in danger,” Unitt says. “The California gnatcatcher, the cactus wren and the willow flycatcher are all threatened but are not classified as endangered.”

The gnatcatcher dwells in sage scrub, but not just any scrub, preferring tracts of California sagebrush, which used to exist over thousands of acres. The cactus wren, a small non-migratory bird, is restricted to scattered thickets of cactus, which are also disappearing. The willow flycatcher depends upon riparian woodland or groves of trees near streams, rivers or lakes.

With troubled species, it’s often a combination of problems that create the threat. For instance, non-migratory species that do not disperse easily, like the cactus wren, can find themselves restricted to isolated patches. In order to survive, they need interconnecting corridors and a sufficiently large gene pool, said Unitt.

For the tiny songbird called Bell’s vireo, the threat is from loss of riparian forest habitat and the proliferation of the brown-headed cowbird. The cowbird is a parasitic species that lays eggs in the nests of vireos, which react to this invasion by either abandoning their nests or raising the young cowbirds as their own.

Other birds on the endangered species list no longer nest in the county at all.

The national bird, the bald eagle, used to live year-round in the county. Classified as endangered in 1967, the majestic raptors only visit occasionally. Don’t count on spotting an American peregrine falcon either. The breeding pairs in California number less than 100, and these birds of prey are rare winter visitors.

As plentiful as they seem, the California brown pelican is also on the endangered species list. Because of quick work by federal and state regulators, though, the bird has made a comeback.

The California condor has not been as fortunate. During the 1800s large numbers of condors lived along the coastal slope in the county. The last sighting recorded occurred near Palomar Mountain in 1933.

Now all 40 survivors of the species reside in captivity, 19 at the Los Angeles Zoo, 21 at the Wild Animal Park outside Escondido. Habitat loss and poisoning combined to almost eradicate the species.

“Lead poisoning was one of their main problems,” said Tom Hanscom a spokesman for the Wild Animal Park. “We can only guess why. Condors, being carrion eaters, were apt to feed on wounded (shot) animals or field-cleaned kills left by hunters and probably ingested lead.”

Like other large birds such as eagles and hawks, condors also fell victim to gun-toting people. A condor captured in 1986 had severe lead poisoning and ultimately died. The position of the buckshot wounds to its body indicate that someone snuck up on the bird and shot it from behind and beneath.

Now part of a captive breeding program, the remaining condors await possible release, says Hanscom. The first captive conceived and hatched condor, Molloko, was born in 1988.

In 1989 four successfully hatched, in 1990, eight. An especially positive sign, according to Hanscom, is that five of a possible six breeding pairs have already exhibited courting behavior.

The condor captive breeding program has not been without controversy though. Some purists took the attitude that, if the vultures were to perish, they should do so with dignity in the wild. The winning side countered that there is no dignity in a slow death from poisoning and that, since man caused the problem, man should take responsibility for trying to find a solution.

Controversy seems to follow when the needs of wildlife conflict with the needs or desires of humans.

Biologist Stewart says she often finds herself caught in the middle.

“Some people just want a view of a blue lagoon,” she said, speaking of Batiquitos. “They don’t understand about the birds. If the water level is higher it may look prettier, but the Belding’s Savannah sparrow and the least tern will have no place to nest. The Department of Fish and Game may want to do some enhancement, while some conservationists want no changes at all.”

Of the 2 million species of birds thought to have existed since the first one took flight about 140 million years ago, 9,000 still exist in the world.

And, although the numbers are declining, in San Diego County there are still 470 species.

“Although there will always be birds around, especially since some birds benefit from man’s presence, I’m not wildly optimistic about being able to maintain what we have now,” says King of the Field Ornithologists.

“Whether we will lose species or not is unclear.”

Friends of Feathered Friends

Although the types of programs may differ, each of these groups offer activities such as monthly meetings, field trips and nature walks. They welcome both experienced and not-so-experienced birders.

* Buena Vista Audubon Society, 439-BIRD.

* Palomar Audubon Society, 723-2448.

* San Diego Audubon Society, 483-7620.

* San Diego Field Ornithologists, 450-0258; 464-7342.

* SDFO Rare-Bird Hotlines, 435-6761 (weekly update), 479-3400 (daily update).