The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

The first Dark-eyed Junco of the fall turns out to be a hybrid cross of the Gray-headed and Red-backed forms (notice the bi-colored upper bill).

October 1, 2024

October.  The season of the warbler draws to a close.  This morning, I add six to my October list after the yard hosted eleven warblers for September, a month that saw a total of 86 birds.  A bit below average.    

I’ve photographed 19 different warblers in the yard so far, less than half of the 50 or so documented in southeast Arizona over the years, including the rarities.  The numbers set up a certain expectation whenever I spot a familiar skulking among the leaves of the chokecherry trees.  With warblers, you never know what you’ll get.  Maybe even a life bird like last May’s extraordinary black-and-white warbler.

An Orange-crowned Warbler works its way to the pond.

An immature Yellow Warbler.

A Black-throated Gray Warbler, as stunning as it is curious.

But as the warblers ebb toward wintering grounds to the south, I’m encouraged by other birds appearing from the north.  This morning, the first dark-eyed junco of the season dips its bi-colored bill into the trickling fountain for a drink.  It joins other Emberizines recently arrived: The wings of chipping and Brewer’s sparrows sputter among the dry goldeneye with a sound like burning sapwood. Lincoln’s sparrows keep to the shadows beneath trees capped with white-crowned sparrows, their zebra-striped heads gleaming in the first shafts of sunlight.  And, a beautiful black-chinned sparrow materializes from gray light, a bird that only rarely visits the yard this time of year.

This is sparrow fall.

And my eyes are on the sparrow.

It’s been a year since the last Black-chinned Sparrow visited the yard.

The Lincoln’s Sparrow is a regular winter resident here.

Another common winter visitor, the White-crowned Sparrow.

Unlike the similar-looking Brewer’s Sparrow (below), Chipping Sparrows show a dark line running all the way through the eye.

Brewer’s Sparrows always say winter is coming.

Still watching for my first Clay-colored Sparrow of the year…

Thanks for checking out the latest in the Big Yard! More to come!