The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

A rare bird in winter, the Fox Sparrow heads north in the spring.

Day 389 of the Pandemic (April 11, 2021)

            Yesterday, Mexico gifted me with a seven-warbler day, the highest since last September’s ten-warbler day, each nugget of color coming to the Covid fountain to drink while I sat in amazement.  With last week’s Bullock’s oriole spearing orange halves and the red-naped sapsucker drilling new wounds in the limbs of my apple tree, my eBird count for the month rose to 55 species.  The Big Yard jumped to #25 in the US.   

The Orange-crowned Warbler is a common migrant in the yard during the spring and fall.

Although they prefer mesquite bosques at lower elevations, I see Lucy’s Warblers in the yard both spring and fall.

Virginia Warbler, another summer visitor that I see mostly in April or August.

One of my favorite spring migrants from coastal Mexico, the stunning Yellow Warbler.

The only warbler that visits the yard in winter, the Yellow-rumped Warbler will be gone soon for the summer.

The Black-throated Gray Warbler is one of the first warblers to arrive in spring and one of the last to migrate in the fall.

It’s a rare treat when a Hermit Warbler visits the Covid fountain.

Today, it got better.

I first thought the bird at the edge of the fountain was one of the regular hermit thrushes with its darkly spotted breast and rufous wings and tail, but it looked odd, more sparrow-like although larger than most sparrows.  I snapped a picture before it flew off, then enlarged the image on the camera display and flipped through my Peterson’s guide of western birds, stopping on page 325.

Fox sparrow!

Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona says fox sparrows are rare here September through March and “Accidental” for April, meaning in this month they’ve been seen less than four times in the last ten years.  No records exist for the summer months.    

North America is home to four subspecies of fox sparrow, the one in my yard being the “slate-colored” of the Interior West that spends it summers as far north as British Columbia.  The bird soon returned and remained all day, digging worms from the grass and bathing in the fountain. 

The yard is now #24 in the country, and I have another life bird.  In my PJs. 

Fox Sparrow in the yard. Life Bird #460.   

Fox Sparrow #153 for the yard. 

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