The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

A bird of the summer, a (male) Hepatic Tanager.

Day 614 of the Pandemic (November 22, 2021) 

            Hepatic tanager in the elderberry tree in November?  Earlier this month I heard one calling but couldn’t locate it.  When I reported it on eBird, the site wanted more information.  Hepatic tanagers—birds I see all summer—are rare this late in the year. 

            The bird continued calling days later but I still couldn’t get eyes on it.  I started thinking maybe I’m hearing the chup, chuping of hermit thrushes, which slip around the fountain in the early morning darkness.  Merlin Sound ID confirmed the tanager, however, but also included the thrush.  Doubts bloomed.  Then, this morning, Merlin said “Hepatic Tanager” during my Big Yard walkabout.  When I broadcasted a tanager playback call, a bright red male flew into the elderberry. 

            The bird will be on tomorrow’s rare bird report.

A late-season male Hepatic Tanager enjoys a late-season crop of elderberries instead of heading south to Mexico.

            For the past few days, warblers (2), vireos (2), empid flycatchers (3), and a beautiful rust-colored young lazuli bunting have joined the out-of-season tanager at the fountain.  All unexpected this late in the year.  Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona says the three flycatchers, both warblers and both vireos, and the bunting are rare in winter.  But then, ripening tomatoes still cling to the vines and the Mexican sage sprays purple bracts into the hovering tongues of cloudless sulphur butterflies. That study I mentioned in Nature Climate Change suggests that rising temperatures are causing birds to head north earlier each spring.  Are the same migrants delaying their return south as well?  Rain hasn’t fallen since September and the canyon warms during the days into the 70s. Perfect weather for birds to linger.

Uncommon in the yard in November, Townsend’s Warblers normally depart for the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala by October.

Another uncommon bird for November, the Black-throated Gray Warbler normally winters in Mexico.

November 21 is the latest record (by a month) for Plumbeous Vireo in my yard in 12 years of observations.

This is the winter of the Hammond’s Flycatcher, which this year prefers the Big Yard over migrating to the mixed forests of central Mexico.

I’ll take a colorful Lazuli Bunting anytime, but especially in the winter months. Normally, the species is off to Mexico by October.

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