The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine
Or: The Evolution of a Lister
Day 73 of the Quarantine (May 25, 2020)
Arlene Ripley says we should call it quits on the isolation listing. She just posted a photo of a gorgeous male varied bunting at her water feature. I told her I’m undone. I’ve seen lazuli and indigo buntings in my yard but never a varied, one that looks like it was hand painted using an entire pallet of color. My range map shows the species coming up from Mexico and barely reaching the Dragoons. It should be in my yard!
She suggests calling it quits because we’re tied “anyway” at 89 species for the year.
I tell her my goal is 100 species.
She says she had 124 once, “but that was an exceptionally good year.”
Damn. She’s tough. But I now have a trickling water feature, too, and it’s already brought me—finally—a male blue grosbeak. And the spotted towhees, which previously only sounded off from the underbrush with their buzzy, descending trill grheeer! now boldly tumble through the chokecherry branches for drinks. The green-tailed towhees, the ones that survive the cats (!), actually take baths. No need to set out orange halves for the Bullock’s and hooded orioles if they prefer flowing water. Tanagers too. No need to prowl the neighborhood with binoculars and camera when I can sit quietly in front of my “Covid fountain” and allow the birds to come to me. And they do.
My neighbors have floated rumors of Lucifer hummingbirds in the area, so I’ll string a nectar feeder in the overhanging apple tree and take bets that Arlene won’t get that awesome Light Bearer with the magenta throat and long, curved bill. Then, I’ll sneak ahead of her with yard bird #90!
Maybe for a day or two.
Arlene is one of those mega-birders, and I often see her reports and photos on eBird. Her life list is north of 1600 species and her yard list stands at 166 birds, which puts her among the top ten yard birders in the county. (My list isn’t even close at 140.) She’s the kind of birder who records the haunting calls of wedge-tailed shearwaters in Kauai, Hawaii. Although the Pandemic has put a crimp in her birding, she tells me she’s venturing out more, “but still avoiding people.”
We’re doing at bit of venturing out ourselves, the wife and I, isolating in the car for six hours to visit the kids and grandkids in Flagstaff for a couple days as we’ve all been social distancing/self-quarantining. Maybe I’ll get a look at that never-before-seen (for me) common crane hanging out at Mormon Lake. Coconino isn’t my county, but it’s not like I’m driving 350 miles for a bird. Yet.
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A male Blue Grosbeak asks for sunflower seeds - love this "asks" description.
Holy crap, you're embarrassing me! 😅