For the past year I have been working on a “San Diego County Avian Database 2002-2021.” With extensive assistance provided by Guy McCaskie and Phil Unitt, and also with much input from many additional San Diego County birders, past and present, the first version of this missive has now been posted on-line. This database includes avian records from late 2002 to mid-February 2021—essentially since the pre-publication cut-off date of records for the San Diego 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 both WORD and PDF versions on the Buena Vista Audubon Society website:

https://bvaudubon.org/birding-resources/

Once on the site’s Birding Resources page, scroll down to “Bird Lists, Checklists, and BVAS Monthly Bird Count Lists.” You should be able to view and download either version, and if you use the WORD version (especially) or open the PDF version in a PDF viewer, the document should be SEARCHABLE, for ease of finding particular species, observer names, locations, or whatever.

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