This article appeared at sometime in 1939, in the San Diego Union (now known as the San Diego Union Tribune.)

(I copied it verbatim, so there are some mistakes, and no corrections were made to it)

Photo caption states- Western mockingbird, 34 of which were seen by San Diego Natural History museum observers in the Christmas bird census reported yesterday to Bird Lore, sponsor of the annual national event.

129 BIRD SPECIES SIGHTED IN 1-DAY SAN DIEGO CENSUS

City Again High In National Magazine Survey by B.W. France

For the 17th consecutive year, San Diego presented its claim as one of the leading bird centers of America when the report of its Christmas bird census taken Thursday was forwarded by Dr. Clinton G. Abbott, director of the Natural History museum, to Bird Lore magazine, sponsor of the annual national event.

In this year's count, taken by three ornithologists, each with assistant, 129 species were identified, with an estimated total of 34,480 individual birds. This is close to the local top, the high record of 132 species having been made in 1931, while the smallest total was 98 in the census of 1924, taken under adverse weather conditions.

Foreign Places Report

The local count was part of a national bird census started by Bird Lore 39 years ago, Each year, on a day near Christmas, ornithologists in each participating locality count the species observed on that one day. The annual census has grown until last year counts were made in 184 localities from the Bay of Fundy, Canada, to San Diego, and the event achieved international scope with counts reported from Hilo, Hawaii, and Dindigul, India

San Diego has had the highest count several years, while Santa Barbara and other Southern California cities have been frequent leaders. Last year, a Texas count of 158 topped the list.  Rivalry, however, is incidental, while the fact that information is the real goal is illustrated by census Montreal, where last year a mere total of 16 years was reported.

"To make a high count possible," Dr. Abbott explained, "the area must be on the seaboard to get the water birds, and must be in the south to get the migratory species.

Mountain Types Uncounted

"Then too, fresh water and mountains should be included. Since the rules prescribe that the area must be no more than 15 miles in diameter, a larger count is possible if mountains are close to the sea, as they are in Santa Barbara. The San Diego count is somewhat handicapped by the fact that our mountains are too distant to be included in the 15-mile limit."

The local party of six went out in three pairs. Dr Abbott and George Conklin took the seashore, Laurence M. Huey and John Hinckley covered an inland section including part of Sweetwater lake, while Frank F. Gander and Leroy W. Arnold went to Balboa park and Mission valley.

Of the 129 species counted, 82 were birds not seen in San Diego in the summer, a few of them being transients stopping on their way farther south, while most were species from the north or east that winter here.

Three New Names Appear

This year, three kinds were seen that have not previously appeared in the local Christmas censuses. They are short-billed gull, usually found farther north; the grasshopper sparrow, which hides in the grass and is difficult to see, and the Gadwill duck, which prefers fresh water, of which only a trivial amount is included in the local census area.

"During our 17 Christmas censuses," Dr. Abbott said, "we have recorded a total of 175 different kinds of birds. Since the total number of species reported in San Diego county is 323, this means that in one winter day, in a 15-mile area mostly in the city, we have seen more than half the birds ever seen in any section of the country at any time of the year.

"San Diego is particurlary fortunate in its wealth of bird life. One of our party, an eastern, had never seen so many birds; and although I have been here for 17 of these local counts, I have never ceased to be impressed with the wide variety of species and the vast number of individual birds this area possesses.