San Diego resident and Big Year record holder Barbara Carlson.
In 2013 San Diego resident Barbara Carlson attained the record birding “Big Year” for San Diego County when she observed, or heard, a total of 387 bird species within the county boundary. This total number has validity based on widely recognized American Birding Association (ABA) guidelines and has been endorsed by SDFO as well as completely validated through eBird’s rare or unusual bird species review process.
In addition one more species that Barbara saw in the county, the Sagebrush Sparrow Artemisiospiza nevadensis at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, is pending admission to her year list. There are ongoing discussions by eBird advisers about identification criteria and difficulties separating the “Mojave” form of Bell’s Sparrow Artemisiospiza belli canescens from the Sagebrush Sparrow A. nevadensis. As of March 2014, eBird recommends they are entered as a species-pair, i.e. they are considered indistinguishable based on currently known field marks.
Both Sagebrush Sparrow and the “Mojave” form of Bell’s Sparrow winter in the desert back country of San Diego County and can be found comingling there in small flocks. From field notes taken by Barbara about the sparrows she observed, recognized experts have confirmed they were indeed Sagebrush Sparrow. The addition of this species would bring Barbara’s total to 388 bird species seen in San Diego County in 2013!
The 388 species, or 387 with one species pending, seen by Barbara in San Diego County in 2013 is the highest county “Big Year” ever accomplished by an individual birder in the ABA area.
Barbara Carlson writes of her 2013 Big Year endeavor:
“The absolute highlight of 2013 was coming home to find a Mourning Warbler hopping through the bushes in our front yard. Here was one of my most-wanted birds for the county as a YARD bird! The second most exciting bird for me was the Great Shearwater spotted on a “Grande” pelagic. This first record for San Diego County and the first for all of southern California was floating placidly on the water within 30 feet of the boat. Even my cell phone was able to capture images.
The year had the above highs, but there were also a number of lows in the form of misses. For example, I made repeated trips to Scissors Crossing, North County’s rivers, and the Tijuana River Valley looking for Yellow-billed Cuckoo. All of the trips to Scissors Crossing were made before work, which meant getting up and driving an hour and a half to arrive at first light. I would search and listen, and listen and search. Nothing remotely sounding or looking like a cuckoo turned up. However, I would inevitably pick up a hitchhiker or two in the ugly form of dog ticks. This was not a good trade-off! I also missed Scissor-tailed Flycatcher a couple of times, only to have a cooperative stake-out show up four days after the end of the year.
In all, to the best of my knowledge, I missed a total of 21 species that were seen by other observers in San Diego County in 2013.”
Barbara Carlson's San Diego County Big Year 2013
January (213 species)
1 Brant
2 American Wigeon
3 Mallard
4 Northern Pintail
5 Redhead
6 Lesser Scaup
7 Surf Scoter
8 Bufflehead
9 Red-throated Loon
10 Pacific Loon
11 Common Loon
12 Horned Grebe
13 Eared Grebe
14 Western Grebe
15 Double-crested Cormorant
16 American White Pelican
17 Brown Pelican
18 Great Blue Heron
19 Snowy Egret
20 Cooper’s Hawk
21 Red-shouldered Hawk
22 Red-tailed Hawk
23 American Kestrel
24 American Coot
25 Semipalmated Plover
26 Willet
27 Marbled Godwit
28 Surfbird
29 Ring-billed Gull
30 Western Gull
31 California Gull
32 Black Skimmer
33 Rock Pigeon
34 Mourning Dove
35 Anna’s Hummingbird
36 Belted Kingfisher
37 Black Phoebe
38 Cassin’s Kingbird
39 American Crow
40 Bushtit
41 Hermit Thrush
42 Northern Mockingbird
43 Cedar Waxwing
44 Orange-crowned Warbler
45 Yellow-rumped Warbler
46 Common Yellowthroat
47 Yellow Warbler
48 Black-throated Gray Warbler
49 Townsend’s Warbler
50 Song Sparrow
51 White-crowned Sparrow
52 House Finch
53 Northern Flicker
54 Nuttall’s Woodpecker
55 American Avocet
56 European Starling
57 Western Bluebird
58 Lesser Goldfinch
59 American Goldfinch
60 Pine Siskin
61 California Towhee
62 Merlin
63 Chestnut-sided Warbler
64 American Robin
65 Snow Goose
66 Long-billed Curlew
67 Killdeer
68 American Redstart
69 House Sparrow
70 Prairie Warbler
71 Common Gallinule
72 Herring Gull
73 Hutton’s Vireo
74 Blue-winged Teal
75 Gadwall
76 Green-winged Teal
77 Eurasian Wigeon
78 Cinnamon Teal
79 Common Raven
80 Western Sandpiper
81 Black-and-white Warbler
82 Nashville Warbler
83 Ross’s Goose
84 Clapper Rail
85 Northern Shoveler
86 Say’s Phoebe
87 Summer Tanager
88 Western Tanager
89 Bay-breasted Warbler
90 White-tailed Kite
91 Great Egret
92 Northern Harrier
93 Savannah Sparrow
94 Lincoln’s Sparrow
95 Western Meadowlark
96 Pied-billed Grebe
97 Painted Redstart
98 Ruddy Duck
99 Turkey Vulture
100 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
101 White-throated Sparrow
102 Red-breasted Nuthatch
103 Grace’s Warbler
104 Plumbeous Vireo
105 Ring-necked Duck
106 Dark-eyed Junco
107 Hepatic Tanager
108 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
109 Northern Waterthrush
110 Wrentit
111 Canada Goose
112 Bewick’s Wren
113 Hammond’s Flycatcher
114 Western Scrub-Jay
115 Little Blue Heron
116 Downy Woodpecker
117 Allen’s Hummingbird
118 Marsh Wren
119 Swamp Sparrow
120 Black-bellied Plover
121 Sanderling
122 Eastern Phoebe
123 Nelson’s Sparrow
124 Common Murre
125 Brandt’s Cormorant
126 Northern Fulmar
127 Royal Tern
128 Heermann’s Gull
129 Black-vented Shearwater
130 Palm Warbler
131 Brewer’s Blackbird
132 House Wren
133 Green Heron
134 Hooded Oriole
135 Forster’s Tern
136 Common Goldeneye
137 Pacific Golden-Plover
138 Cattle Egret
139 Cactus Wren
140 White-throated Swift
141 Clark’s Grebe
142 Spotted Towhee
143 Common Merganser
144 Spotted Sandpiper
145 Canvasback
146 Tropical Kingbird
147 Thick-billed Kingbird
148 Mountain Chickadee
149 Bullock’s Oriole
150 Acorn Woodpecker
151 Bonaparte’s Gull
152 Lewis’s Woodpecker
153 Osprey
154 Greater Scaup
155 Hooded Merganser
156 Eurasian Collared-Dove
157 Red-winged Blackbird
158 Vaux’s Swift
159 Costa’s Hummingbird
160 Black-throated Blue Warbler
161 Dunlin
162 White-breasted Nuthatch
163 Chipping Sparrow
164 Hermit Warbler
165 Least Sandpiper
166 Wilson’s Snipe
167 Long-billed Dowitcher
168 Black-necked Stilt
169 Greater Yellowlegs
170 Red-breasted Merganser
171 Ruddy Turnstone
172 American Pipit
173 Gray Flycatcher
174 Black-crowned Night-Heron
175 Vermilion Flycatcher
176 Short-eared Owl
177 Reddish Egret
178 Burrowing Owl
179 White-faced Ibis
180 Virginia Rail
181 Great-tailed Grackle
182 Harris’s Hawk
183 Oak Titmouse
184 California Quail
185 White-winged Dove
186 Brown-headed Cowbird
187 Sharp-shinned Hawk
188 Hairy Woodpecker
189 Pygmy Nuthatch
190 Vesper Sparrow
191 Mountain Bluebird
192 Ferruginous Hawk
193 Tricolored Blackbird
194 Bald Eagle
195 Red-necked Grebe
196 Solitary Sandpiper
197 Cackling Goose
198 Red Knot
199 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
200 Loggerhead Shrike
201 Greater White-fronted Goose
202 Wood Duck
203 Evening Grosbeak
204 Pine Warbler
205 Black Turnstone
206 Tree Swallow
207 Curlew Sandpiper
208 Short-billed Dowitcher
209 Peregrine Falcon
210 Barn Swallow
211 California Thrasher
212 White-winged Scoter
213 Broad-billed Hummingbird
February (46 species)
214 Long-tailed Duck
215 Prairie Falcon
216 Phainopepla
217 Townsend’s Solitaire
218 Mew Gull
219 Whimbrel
220 Pelagic Cormorant
221 Rhinoceros Auklet
222 Pomarine Jaeger
223 Scripps’s Murrelet
224 Cassin’s Auklet
225 Greater Roadrunner
226 Golden-crowned Sparrow
227 Harris’s Sparrow
228 Baltimore Oriole
229 Parasitic Jaeger
230 Manx Shearwater
231 Lesser Yellowlegs
232 Glaucous-winged Gull
233 Zone-tailed Hawk
234 Western Screech-Owl
235 Red-breasted Sapsucker
236 Band-tailed Pigeon
237 Steller’s Jay
238 Lark Sparrow
239 Wild Turkey
240 California Gnatcatcher
241 Green-tailed Towhee
242 Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
243 Verdin
244 Le Conte’s Thrasher
245 Black-throated Sparrow
246 Crissal Thrasher
247 Common Ground-Dove
248 Great Horned Owl
249 Ladder-backed Woodpecker
250 Short-tailed Shearwater
251 Thayer’s Gull
252 Barn Owl
253 Horned Lark
254 Yellow-headed Blackbird
255 Lawrence’s Goldfinch
256 Golden Eagle
257 Clay-colored Sparrow
258 Pacific Wren
259 Red-crowned Parrot
March (43 species)
260 Cassin’s Vireo
261 Common Poorwill
262 Sooty Shearwater
263 Pink-footed Shearwater
264 Fox Sparrow
265 Mountain Quail
266 Purple Finch
267 Violet-green Swallow
268 Sora
269 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
270 Cassin’s Finch
271 Wandering Tattler
272 Cliff Swallow
273 Gambel’s Quail
274 Swainson’s Hawk
275 Western Kingbird
276 Rock Wren
277 Rufous-crowned Sparrow
278 Spotted Owl
279 Northern Saw-whet Owl
280 Scott’s Oriole
281 Pacific-slope Flycatcher
282 Yellow-throated Vireo (H)
283 Caspian Tern
284 Elegant Tern
285 Bell’s Vireo
286 Snowy Plover
287 Lucy’s Warbler
288 Sage Thrasher
289 Canyon Wren
290 Red Crossbill
291 Gull-billed Tern
292 Grasshopper Sparrow
293 Black-chinned Hummingbird
294 Black-headed Grosbeak
295 Ash-throated Flycatcher
296 Wilson’s Plover
297 Black-chinned Sparrow
298 Bell’s Sparrow
299 Gray Vireo
300 Brown Creeper
301 Laughing Gull
302 Warbling Vireo
April (18 species)
303 Wilson’s Warbler
304 Least Bittern
305 Rufous Hummingbird
306 Black Oystercatcher
307 Brewer’s Sparrow
308 Brown Booby
309 Red-necked Phalarope
310 Black Storm-Petrel
311 Calliope Hummingbird
312 Blue Grosbeak
313 Yellow-breasted Chat
314 Lazuli Bunting
315 MacGillivray’s Warbler
316 Franklin’s Gull
317 Western Wood-Pewee
318 Lesser Nighthawk
319 Least Tern
320 Olive-sided Flycatcher
May (14 species)
321 Swainson’s Thrush
322 Tennessee Warbler
323 American Bittern
324 Purple Martin
325 Willow Flycatcher
326 Common Tern
327 Ashy Storm-Petrel
328 Red Phalarope
329 Sabine’s Gull
330 Flammulated Owl (H)
331 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
332 Brown-crested Flycatcher
333 Bronzed Cowbird
334 Bank Swallow
June (8 species)
335 Black-footed Albatross
336 Dusky Flycatcher
337 White-headed Woodpecker
338 Pigeon Guillemot
339 Indigo Bunting
340 Buller’s Shearwater
341 Masked Booby
342 Wilson’s Phalarope
July (6 species)
343 Lesser Sand-Plover
344 Stilt Sandpiper
345 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
346 Arctic Tern
347 Leach’s Storm-Petrel
348 Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
August (5 species)
349 Black Swift
350 Pectoral Sandpiper
351 Craveri’s Murrelet
352 Red-billed Tropicbird
353 Black Tern
September (11 species)
354 Inca Dove
355 Baird’s Sandpiper
356 Semipalmated Sandpiper
357 Nutmeg Mannikin
358 Blue-footed Booby
359 Bobolink
360 Ovenbird
361 Least Storm-Petrel
362 Yellow-green Vireo
363 Red-throated Pipit
364 Magnolia Warbler
October (12 species)
365 Flesh-footed Shearwater
366 South Polar Skua
367 Crested Caracara
368 Great Crested Flycatcher
369 Lapland Longspur
370 Great Shearwater
371 Guadalupe Murrelet
372 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
373 Golden-crowned Kinglet
374 Scarlet Tanager
375 Red-naped Sapsucker
376 Northern Parula
November (11 species)
377 Gray Catbird
378 Blackpoll Warbler
379 Mourning Warbler
380 Williamson’s Sapsucker
381 Black Scoter
382 Orchard Oriole
383 Black-throated Green Warbler
384 Black-legged Kittiwake
385 Sagebrush Sparrow (†)
386 Varied Thrush
387 Blue-headed Vireo
December (1 species)
388 Glaucous Gull
Legend
H – heard only
† – pending