updated “San Diego County Avian Database 2002-2022” posted

By – 4:48 am

For the past 2-1/2 years I have been working on
a “San Diego County Avian Database 2002-2022.” With assistance
provided by Guy McCaskie and Phil Unitt, and also with input from many
additional San Diego County birders, past and present, the latest version of
this missive has now been posted on-line.

This database includes avian records
from late 2002 to early August 2022—essentially since the pre-publication
cut-off date of records for the San Diego County Bird Atlas by Philip
Unitt (2004). Also included are many pre-2002 records of interest not found in,
or data-corrected from, Unitt (2004) and Unitt (1984; The Birds of San Diego
County). The data include those involving rarities, unseasonal records,
high counts, early and late dates, specimens of interest, range expansions and
contractions, and some other significant population trends. Each species entry
is divided into four principal “sub-regions” of the county—coast,
inland, mountains, and desert–and these sub-regions are further sub-divided
into three seasons—migration, winter, and summer/breeding.

With much-appreciated assistance provided by Jane Mygatt and Natalie
Shapiro, the database has been posted in a WORD version on the Buena Vista
Audubon Society website:

Birding Resources

Once on the site’s Birding Resources page, you should be able to easily view
and download the document. Once downloaded, it should be SEARCHABLE, for ease
of finding particular species, observer names, locations, or whatever.
(Alongside the database on this page there is also an electronic version of the
San Diego County Bird Atlas.)

I plan to continuously update this database, and to post updated versions
approximately every six months. If anyone is interested in the most current
version at any time between those intervals, feel free to contact me privately.

And please do let me know about any errors or omissions you might find. No
correction is too minor!

–Paul Lehman, San Diego