The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

The eBird bar chart for the Big Yard shows no sightings of Cassin’s Kingbird after October in 12 years of checklists.

Day 635 of the Pandemic (December 13, 2021)

I missed the snowfall by one day in Mountainaire.  But this morning, back in the Mule Mountains, a nice treat.  A lingering Cassin’s kingbird flies to the top of a bare walnut tree long enough for photos, making the rare bird report for the Big Yard.

            Unfortunately, the Reid Park rare bird is dead.  This evening I asked Chris Rohrer, who was there when the varied thrush was “rescued,” if he had an update about its status.  He passed along a note from Debbie Laferty who had just gotten a call from the Tucson wildlife Center.  “When it was brought in it had no fat stores and was very dehydrated,” she said.  “They gave it fluids and put it on oxygen but shortly after it passed away.”

Mark Stevenson doesn’t think birders did it in, but he can’t be sure.  “For it to have no fat, it was probably starving for a prolonged period.  But how was it starving while eating pistache fruits in the park?  It was also seen drinking from the ‘stream’ in the park.”
            I don’t know what to think.  Except to repeat what I’ve said before: Fundamentally, birdwatching disturbs birds. 

Three days later, the male hepatic tanager returns.  As I’m writing about it for the November 22 post, the bird gives its chup chup call from the fruiting elderberry.  The quantum vortex is strong this morning. 

I chase it around the yard in my PJs with my camera and a recorded playback of its call to get a decent photograph, disturbing the tanager so it will be “confirmed” on eBird’s rare bird alert.

It’s the only hepatic tanager reported on this date in Arizona.

According to my eBird bar chart, this is the yard’s first December record for Hepatic Tanager.

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