The Big Yard: Birdwatching in a Time of Quarantine

Or: The Evolution of a Pajama Lister

Mountainaire Cabin work zone for tongue-and-groove.

The Mud Room with new pinewood cubbies.

The husbands at work on YD’s bookcase in her writing room.

Completed coffee bar and shiplap walls.

Day 624 of the Pandemic (December 2, 2021) Header: project photo? Post December 23

I’m in Mountainaire near Flagstaff for the annual work project at Youngest Daughter and husband’s home in the piney woods.  Ten days of milling shiplap for walls, fitting tongue-and-groove across ceilings, and lifting 600-pound, fire-salvaged local ponderosa bookshelves into place.  Ten days of recovery with late-night zombie shows, anejo tequila, and Tylenol.

            And birds.  Because I can’t help myself (and must maintain my continuous daily listing on eBird—623 days now), each morning I step in a frozen, 20-degree F. backyard to count the jays, nuthatches, juncos, and chickadees.

One of the more common yard birds in northern Arizona, the Steller’s Jay.

The White-breasted Nuthatch, another regular yard bird at Mountainaire.

The Pygmy Nuthatch is a common year-round denizen of pine forests.

The Mountain Chickadee is common in coniferous forest throughout the West.

Today, Middle Daughter, who also lives in Mountainaire, calls to say she’s spotted the ring-necked pheasant that been frequenting the neighborhood.  So, Youngest Daughter, her husband, and I grab coats and binoculars and head off to join MD.  She shows us where the bird is crouched low in a drainage ditch.  Trying not to disturb it, I snap a few photos, but it flushes straight into the air among the pines and then shoots down the street. MD and YD and I follow for the chase. This is my first Arizona sighting of the bird, and for this location, a rarity according to eBird.  Still, I doubt a rare ring-necked pheasant in Mountainaire will draw much attention.  It’s not like it’s the varied thrush at Tucson’s Reid Park.

The Ring-necked Pheasant (male) is native to Asia but well-established across the US including a few places like Yuma, Arizona.

            Mega birder Chris Rohrer says a volunteer from the Tucson Wildlife Center netted the Reid Park varied thrush on Nov. 28 and has taken it to rehab.  The rare bird appeared “lethargic” and was turning in slow circles.  “I am a bit saddened by the news,” Chris writes.  “Hope she makes a recovery. Not sure what happened. There are always snap judgements...too many birders, those ‘damn photographers’ (!) who cross the line, etc. But also, sometimes we have to remember that this is a vagrant that is off course. I'm sure the thousands of people interrupting the necessary eat and drink fest didn't help.”

            Famed naturalist and conservationist Aldo Leopold says we always kill the thing we love.

Mark Stevenson had located the bird over Thanksgiving and reported it to the rare bird alert.  Droves of birdwatchers lit up eBird and Facebook with photos and descriptions during the past week, and I admit I was tempted to stop by the park on my way to Flagstaff and check out the fruiting Chinese pistache tree the bird was foraging in.  But I resisted.  If our writing workshop was still meeting there, I would have carried binoculars and camera with me.  But like I told a birding friend who posted her photos of the thrush, I’ll wait for one to show up in my yard.

            No information on how the thrush is doing.  One of the last people to report on it commented that the thrush was on the ground in the rocks along one of the artificial streams, saying, “Looks like it is injured or sick.”   

I hope it’s not another Leopold bird.