The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

An Elegant Trogon (male), the birdwatcher’s prize, checks out my yard in the Mule Mountains.

Day 382 of the Pandemic (April 4, 2021)

            Anything can happen in this yard.  Yesterday the first calliope hummingbird of the season, the sixth hummingbird so far this year, flashed its iridescent purple gorget in the honeysuckle, matching throat for throat.  Then, a new sparrow came to the Covid fountain for a long drink, long enough for photographs that helped me verify it as a vesper sparrow, a bird of dry and open agricultural fields.  Yard bird #154.  It must have flown many miles because it heard about my water feature.

The Calliope Hummingbird is one of 12 species of hummingbirds that visited the yard from early spring until late fall.

A Vesper Sparrow on its way to breeding grounds in the grasslands of northern US and Canada.

            But the best materialized out of the sky this morning, Easter morning.

I was sitting on the backyard porch watching birds with camera in hand. A black-throated gray warbler and painted redstart splashed in the fountain among the regular orioles, kinglets, and finches. Suddenly, I felt a rush of feathers over my head.  I turned to see a large green bird as silent as a moth fly under the porch and land on my gate. Elegant trogon!  In my yard!  I managed a few photos with my mouth hung open.

Black-throated Gray Warblers are a common visitor to the yard April and September.

A Painted Redstart in early April is the first indication that migration is underway.

One of the regular over-wintering birds, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet departs the yard in April and returns sometime in September.

I saw my first elegant trogon 20 years ago almost to the day.  The wife and daughters and I were spending a long weekend at Madera Canyon, relaxing at Richard and Cora’s Madera Kubo #4, our favorite escape from Tucson at the end of the school year.  On our first morning, I stood with my coffee at the picture window overlooking the creek.  English ivy had entangled the trunks of three sycamore trees and hard purple fruit drooped in clusters.  “Are you going hiking for the trogon?” the wife asked as the girls joined us at the window.

“Yes.  Why?” I asked, knowing something was up by their gathering smiles.

“Because it’s right there in the tree,” she said.  We hadn’t even left the cabin and there, not 15 feet away from our faces, a bright geranium and emerald bird from Mexico’s Sierra Madre plucked fruit from the vines.

“Do we have to go hiking now?” Kasondra asked.

            My yard list for the day stands at 42 species with this evening’s whiskered screech owl and pair of elf owls, barking their spring arrival from their favorite nesting cavity in the power pole.  On eBird, this ranking puts my yard at #31 in the country. 

Anything can happen in your PJs.

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