The San Dieguito Monthly Bird Count identified 91 species in October, including the Clay-colored Sparrow, which is a new species! Our volunteer data recorder, Joni, states this “would have brought our total to 236, but I fixed an erroneous entry for the Red Knot back in Sept 2015. Removing that species, cancels out the increase this month, so our total number of overall species remains at 235.” Click here for the PDF document with the detailed monthly results through October 2017.

According to bird count leader Jayne Lesley, some other noteworthy birds were a Red-breasted Merganser, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Sora, Ridgway’s Rails, Loggerhead Shrike, Peregrine Falcon, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Downy Woodpecker, Meadowlarks, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and Lincoln Sparrow.

The featured image of a Clay-colored Sparrow was taken by Laura Erickson and was found on The Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website. According to the website, Clay-colored Sparrows usually migrate through the Great Plains states between their summer breeding grounds in the northern states and Canada and their wintering grounds in Mexico.

Click here for more information about the San Dieguito Lagoon Bird Surveys.