By Mark Waite

Heavy rains that created muddy roads caused the postponement of the annual Christmas bird count at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge until Jan. 4, about the date of the Orthodox Christmas Jan. 7.

The forced rescheduling from the count originally planned in mid-December, resulted in a lower turnout of volunteers, but the birds still turned out in decent numbers.

Volunteers counted 1,341 birds from 62 different species during the day-long event.

The highlights of the count included a flock of 10 sandhill cranes, a mountain chickadee, a rough-legged hawk, a golden eagle and an orange-crowned warbler.

Game birds like the Gambel’s quail and blue-winged teal were plentiful and found in high numbers.

But volunteers reported many of the shorebirds and waders that are typical of the count were missing from the refuge that day, probably due to ice on the marshes and shallow water, refuge national resource coordinator Sam Skalek said.

Numbers were down significantly from the 3,266 birds and 72 species counted in the 2011 count, which included a peregrine falcon and great horned owl, observed under windy conditions. In 2009, volunteers counted 4,926 birds.

The 23,448-acre Ash Meadows NWR is home to at least 26 plant and animal species found nowhere else. Over 239 bird species have been recorded.

The best times to observe birds on the refuge is usually during the spring migration in April and May or the fall migration, from mid-August through September.

Mesquite and ash trees around the refuge headquarters and at Point of Rocks harbor many resident and migratory birds, including typical southwestern species like the Crissal thrasher, verdin, phainopepla and Lucy’s warbler.

Endangered southwestern willow flycatchers use the refuge as breeding habitat in the summer months, while endangered species success stories like the peregrine falcon and bald eagle occasionally stop at the refuge on migrations.

The Christmas Bird Count is a long-standing citizen science project coordinated by the National Audubon Society. The annual Ash Meadows count began in 1995.

The data is used to track long-term population trends of wintering North American bird species.

In addition, the program offers volunteers, bird watchers and others a chance to collect and record important bird data on the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

List of species and numbers counted:

American Coot 240

Ruddy duck 150

White-crowned sparrow 143

Green-winged teal 134

Gambel’s quail 70

Song sparrow 59

Lesser goldfinch 57

Northern pintail 53

Blue-winged teal 38

Northern shoveler 32

Common raven 31

Phainopepla 28

American tree sparrow 20

Marsh wren 19

Sage sparrow 19

Brewers blackbird 18

American widgeon 16

Western meadowlark 15

Horned lark 15

Mallard 14

Northern harrier 14

American pipit 12

Sandhill crane 10

Verdin 10

Redhead 8

House finch 8

Loggerhead shrike 8

Canvasback 7

Bufflehead 7

Black-tailed gnatcatcher 7

Pied-billed grebe 6

Gadwall 6

Ruby-crowned kinglet 6

Ring-billed gull 5

Crissal thrasher 5

Red-shafted northern flicker 5

Bewick’s wren 5

Black phoebe 4

Western bluebird 4

Great-blue heron 4

Virginia rail 3

Common merganser 2

Red-tailed hawk 2

Greatest roadrunner 2

American bittern 2

Bushtit 2

Rock wren 1

Least bittern 1

Northern mockingbird 1

Coopers hawk 1

Rough-legged hawk 1

Ferruginous hawk 1

Golden eagle 1

Prairie falcon 1

Lesser scaup 1

Eared grebe 1

Killdeer 1

Least sandpiper 1

Wilson’s snipe 1

Mountain chickadee 1

Orange-crowned warbler 1