The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

Richard Shelton, Nobody Rich or Famous, rolls up his sleeve for the vaccine.

Day 358 of the Quarantine (March 9, 2021)

            Yesterday I drove to Tucson to maneuver Richard Shelton through the drive-in queue at the University of Arizona after finally getting him scheduled for the Pfizer vaccine.  An hour later and he gets the jab.

This morning, my 87-year-old friend is suffering no ill aftereffects from the alien salts, sugars, lipids, and messenger RNA now circulating in his blood.  So, I leave him to his own devices and drive north to the Ina Road Bridge at the Santa Cruz River for a second—and hopefully successful—look at an alien northern jacana that’s been spreading its long toes over the monkeyflower and probing for insects.  The rare, lily pad-walking bird is far from its home on the coasts of Mexico and, although I saw one in 2007 on a golf course in Casa Grande, I’d love to try out my new (to me) 100-400mm telephoto lens.

            When I arrive, a group of birdwatchers stands on the riverbank pointing binoculars at a large blooming willow.  “Warblers,” one of them says when I ask what’s so interesting.  “At least six species, including a parula.” A classic “mixed flock” of foraging birds.

            “Northern parula?” I say, thinking I’ve never seen the blue-and-yellow warbler common to the eastern half of the US but not around here.  I locate yellow and orange-crowned warblers, and then a Wilson’s that everyone is suddenly interested in.  Yellow-rumps, Lucy’s...and then there it is.  A small, short-tailed, yellow-breasted warbler needling its sharp bill into a fuzzy catkin.  A take a dozen pictures.

            Life bird #460.  Magic.

The Northern Parula is seen along river corridors and mountain ranges a few times a year in Southern Arizona.

The Orange-crowned Warbler favors willows and other deciduous trees where it can be found feeding regularly in the spring and fall.

The Wilson’s Warbler is a common forager in riparian corridors like the Santa Cruz River during the spring months.

Lucy’s Warbler, another common spring arrival to riparian woodlands and mesquite bosques.

What I think is one of the most beautiful of all warblers, the Yellow Warbler.

            Locating the northern jacana among the cattails from the bridge bike path is almost anticlimactic.  Almost.  When a passing bicyclist stops next to me and asks what everyone is looking at, I give her a description and habits of the “Jesus bird.”  She’s genuinely interested and asks lots of questions as I scan the riverbank in the distance.

            “What’s that bird?” She points beneath me.

            I hand her my binoculars.  “Good eyes,” I say.

It’s the jacana.

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