The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine
Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister
Day 653 of the Pandemic (December 31, 2021)
In the gray light of morning, a sapsucker ladders up the pocked trunk of the pear tree, knocking on wood. A flicker’s pitched cry pierces the canyon, startling the jays and doves, whose wings blast the air in one explosive liftoff.
Every bird sounds like deliverance.
In the collapsing silence, a thrush chups from the undergrowth. The song is barely audible, so quiet in fact, that I realize it isn’t intended for anyone else.
The thrush sings only to itself.
I’m closing the end of the year in real time. With 147 yard birds for 2021, eleven more than last year. The yard stands at 166 species total, 159 of these appearing during the Pandemic that began two years ago when I first picked up my binoculars and camera, ventured into the backyard in my PJs with my morning coffee, and began putting words on the page.
For two years, in and out of quarantine (and now back in again!), I’ve marked the birds.
Here's a recap of the best for each month in 2021:
Happy New Year! What will the quantum vortex in 2022 bring to the Big Yard? Certainly birds. But what else as this amazing wild place in the Mule Mountains of southeast Arizona reveals itself? Keep reading to discover it as I discover it...in my pajamas.
The only way to list birds and watch wildlife.
See you in January!
Very nice year list. Mine was not one of my better ones--not a single new yard species either!
That's great! Hope it goes well.