The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

Often heard but seldom seen, the Mexican Whip-poor-will.

June 7, 2024

The eastern sky has yet to spread light across the yard and I’m awake in the predawn pale, listening for goatsuckers.  The kingbirds are already rising, calling with a repeated and hoarse CHI-veer! as if early morning is something to celebrate.  The elf owls bark from the nest hole in the power pole, seemingly unconcerned that APS has slated their home for removal in August “after the breeding season.”  Then, when I turn toward the house, a whip-poor-will sounds off from the dry hillside and a pair of the nightjars flutter above my head and land next to the fountain, their dark squat shapes sitting still as stones.

Waiting for goats, apparently.   

The morning is already warm before sunrise.  June.  The month of heat domes and desiccation as we hang on to any suggestion—any hope—of the coming monsoon.  Like today’s meteorological report of “promising signs” that a plume of moisture is slowly pushing toward us up the Pacific coast of Mexico.  It’s sorely needed.  The water tank is empty with a well pumping less than 50 gallons a day.  I ordered the water truck, and then got a callback that the truck had broken down.  The wild turkeys and jays and towhees are unmovable, spending the days glued to shade and staring at an empty water trough.  The grosbeaks polish off suet cakes and suck the pulp from orange halves in a matter of hours.   

Black-headed Grosbeaks, like this male (female below), will spend the entire summer in the yard.

Despite the heat and drought, or maybe because of it, this has been a week for grosbeaks.  Dozens of black-headed grosbeaks sing from the oaks between visits to the feeders.  For two days, a rare rose-breasted grosbeak, this one a female, shelled sunflower seeds with her enormous pale bill.  I’ve seen the gorgeous, heart-breasted male in the yard only a dozen times in as many years.  And then, an impossibly hued, male blue grosbeak put in a brief appearance to be counted among the summer seedeaters. 

To top this trio, all the Big Yard needs is a yellow grosbeak.

Like the one that visited last year precisely on this day in June.

This week, a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak visited the yard for a couple of days. The male (below) is from June two years ago.

A male Blue Grosbeak comes to the fountain to drink.

Last June’s birdwatcher’s prize, a Yellow Grosbeak, from right outside my office window.

Success! After the power company (APS) gave the Elf Owls one more season, my neighbors began building nest boxes to replace their nesting site on the power pole.

Oranges aren’t only relished by Grosbeaks and Orioles. This Mexican Opossum has become a regular nightly visitor.

Thanks For subscribing! Looking forward to the summer thunderstorms as the monsoon season officially begins next week!