Date: 2/28/26 8:21 pm From: Chris Conard via groups.io <conardc...> Subject: [centralvalleybirds] Folsom CBC summary 4 Jan 2026
Hi folks,
We ran the 47th Folsom Christmas Bird Count on 4 Jan 2026 in what were the worst conditions in the more than 20 years I have been involved with the count. Last year, we complained about a half day of rain. This year, we had 1.3 inches of rain (all day), with considerable wind. It is a credit to the dedication of our area leaders and counters that we had 63 people in 31 parties for a total of 161.75 party hours (compared to 196 party hours last year). We barely topped our lowest ever species total, with 124, within a historical range of 123 to 149, and we had a total of 36,153 birds. Last year, at 136, was the first time we had fallen below 140 species since 2012. I honestly thought the 120s were well in our past, but without a few key pickups, we could have been in the one-teens.
We spotted some geese that are missable for this count (Snow and Greater White-fronts), missed Cackling and Tundra Swans (increasingly absent), and had 48 invasive Mute Swans. Duck numbers and diversity were really low. Barrow's Goldeneyes have been scarce the last three years, and we only found two. Wild Turkeys, at 260, were up slightly, but for several years have been half or less than the 500-800 on counts from 15 to 20 years ago. Grebe numbers were quite low, and we had seven Common Loons, but no uncommons. Shorebirds were scarce and we found only one Greater Yellowlegs. Among over 14,000 gulls--the vast majority were Californias. Of the less common species, we had two Short-billed (Mew) Gulls, three Iceland (Thayer's) Gulls, and three Glaucous-winged Gulls.
We found two Osprey, missed Golden Eagle, had 14 Bald Eagles (trying not to double count), four Ferruginous Hawks, and one Rough-legged Hawk. We found four Merlins, missed Prairie Falcons, and spotted two Peregrine Falcons. We had one Barn Owl and one Burrowing Owl, but missed Western Screech-Owl. Only four Great Horned Owls were found for the second year in a row.
After last year's record of 466 White-throated Swifts, we nearly missed them--surely weather-related--finding just two. Three Lewis's Woodpeckers and four Hairy Woodpeckers were good pickups. We missed Loggerhead Shrike and found just two Hutton's Vireos. We missed Steller's Jay, but had an impressive 80 Yellow-billed Magpies after only 13 last year. We missed swallows, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Marsh Wren, Varied Thrush, and Common Yellowthroat to name a few. We found a Hastings-worth, 1066, Bushtits (way up from last year), 959 American Robins (way up), 756 Western Bluebirds (slightly up), 516 Oak Titmouses (slightly down), and 629 Lesser Goldfinches (steady). Two parties reported a total of 16 Lawrence's Goldfinches, accounting for perhaps the only really good finds of the day.
Grassland species in particular were way down in the terrible conditions. We missed Horned Lark, had only 19 American Pipits, and missed Tricolored Blackbirds. Sparrows in general were down, but a single Chipping Sparrow was a good save.
Thanks to all of the participants and especially the area leaders! To repeat last year's refrain, let's hope for better conditions next year!
