AMARGOSA VALLEY -- Thirteen participants spent from sunrise to sunset counting birdlife in the annual Christmas Bird Count at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Bird watchers counted 81 species, which broke the old record of 77 for the annual bird list, according to Carl Lundblad, Ash Meadows NWR ecological technician. Participants counted a total of over 2,600 birds, he said.

"The biggest highlight was a yellow-billed loon, which breeds in the Arctic and mostly winters along the Pacific coast of Alaska and Canada with a few wandering down the coast and, very rarely, inland each year. The species has only been seen a handful of times in Nevada, although a second one is currently being observed in Sparks," Lundblad said.

Other good finds, he reported, was a sighting of a golden-crowned sparrow, which mostly winters along the California coast; a peregrine falcon, a red-shouldered hawk and a variety of ducks including four greater scaup.

An immature bald eagle was present for count week but wasn't seen on the actual count date, Dec. 14, Lundblad said. Late last week it was reported to have been seen sitting on a no-hunting sign near Crystal Reservoir.

Volunteers in southern Nevada did the count a day before a storm left snow on the mountains and four days before Pahrump was hit with a three-inch snowfall.

Tens of thousands of bird watchers fanned out across America armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists for the 109th annual Christmas Bird Count from Dec. 14, 2008, through Jan. 5.

A statement on the National Audubon Society's Web site said the annual bird count is used to assess the health of bird populations and help guide conservation action.

The list compiled at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge includes species granted special status in Nye County, like 53 phainopepla, 15 loggerhead shrikes and four crissal thrashers.

It's a list that almost conjures up the 12 Days of Christmas carol. But instead of three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree, there were the following sightings listed:

The most numerous birds included 449 American coots, 341 white-crowned sparrows, 301 ruddy ducks, 202 American green-winged teals, 165 brewer's blackbirds, 152 horned larks, 102 California gulls, 97 American pipits, 70 northern shovelers, 65 western meadowlarks, 62 mountain bluebirds, 44 Eurasian collared doves, 34 Gambel's quail, 33 western bluebirds, 27 great-tailed grackles, 26 killdeer, 26 house finches, 26 lesser goldfinches, 24 dark-eyed juncos, 21 sage sparrows and 20 red-winged blackbirds.

Bird watchers also noted these other species: one Ross' goose, three wood ducks, 20 gadwalls, six American wigeon, eight Mallard ducks, three cinnamon teal, a dozen northern pintails, four canvasbacks, 20 redhead, a dozen buffleheads, a lone common merganser, one yellow-billed loon, 10 pied-billed grebes, one eared grebe, three American bitterns, a single great blue heron, Northern 10 harriers, four Cooper's hawks, a red-shouldered hawk, one red-tailed hawk, two American kestrels, one Virginia rail, six least sandpipers, 13 ring-billed gulls, 18 mourning doves, two barn owls, a great horned owl, one short-eared owl, 14 Northern flickers, three black phoebes, seven Say's phoebes, two western scrub-jay, 15 common ravens, 15 verdins, seven bushtits, two rock wrens, 14 bewick's wrens, nine marsh wrens, eight ruby-crowned kinglets, five black-tailed gnatcatcher, a Townsend's solitaire, one American robin, 13 northern mockingbirds, three sage thrashers, 11 European starlings, five yellow-rumped warblers, four Savannah sparrows, 18 song sparrows, four Lincoln's sparrows and a single golden-crowned sparrow.

Other species besides the bald eagle included a ring-necked duck, a merlin, a prairie falcon, an American avocet, a herring gull, a greater roadrunner, a red-naped sapsucker, a gray flycatcher and a spotted towhee.

Lundblad said this year's Christmas Bird Count at Ash Meadows NWR is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 18. A well-advertised one-day hunting closure will be implemented for safety's sake.