The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

Canada Geese resting at Kachina Wetlands with the San Francisco Peaks in the background. Photo: Melissa Sevigny.

Day 267 of the Quarantine (December 6, 2020)

After a week in Mountainaire, tearing out walls and plumbing, ripping up rotten subfloors, replacing 70s paneling with knotty-pine shiplap, and lifting huge, hernia-busting beams into place, we take a day off.  It’s Sunday, so of course we drive to Warner’s, our favorite plant nursery/coffeehouse in Flagstaff. 

Chris surveys our progress on the kitchen project.

Then Chris disappears to Home Depot where he likes to mask up and harass Covid unbelievers while picking up supplies for his contractor business. Melissa and I head for Kachina Wetlands for the green-winged teal, ring-necked ducks, and 300 Canada geese.  eBird reports that one of the ponds holds a pair of cackling geese, a slightly smaller, shorter-billed lookalike of the black-necked, white-cheeked goose common across the country.  Cackling is rare for Arizona and a new bird for me.

Hundreds of Canada Geese and somewhere among them are two Cackling Geese. Photo: Melissa Sevigny

A pair of Green-winged Teal, an “infrequent” visitor to Kachina Wetlands. Photo: Melissa Sevigny

We hike along an elevated berm to a tawny wall of cattails and reeds that border the pond.  Beyond it, scores of Canada geese rest on its surface, heads tucked into their shoulders.  We circle the pond, picking out a lone great blue heron among the dead stalks and surprise a roadrunner as it crosses the two-track.  While Melissa snaps photos, I search each goose with binoculars, checking for stubby bills and comparing sizes with neighbors. More geese arrive, dozens, each dropping one by one out of the sky from their V formation and skidding across the ice with wings on full reverse thrust.  I check every single bird.

            “That’s one,” I finally tell Melissa.” The one by itself to the right of that group.  Wait for it to untuck its head...see the bill?

            She takes a few pictures and enlarges the images.  “I don’t know,” she says. 

            “Look how much smaller it is, like a third smaller.”

            “Maybe...”

            “I’m 98.98 percent sure,” I say. 

“Let’s see what eBird says after you post the pictures.”

On the way back to the car, a guy with binoculars asks if we’d spotted anything interesting.

“We saw a cackling goose,” I answer.  “But it’s in with hundreds of Canadas—kind of a challenge to pick out.”

“Good luck,” Melissa adds.  “It’s like playing Where’s Waldo.”

Is that Waldo?

Closeup: A Cackling Goose rests at the far right of a flock of Canada Geese. The next day, eBird confirmed the sighting.  Life bird #450. Photo: Melissa Sevigny.

An “unreported” sighting on eBird, this Greater Roadrunner is almost as rare at Kachina Wetlands as the Cackling Goose. Photo Melissa Sevigny

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