The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher
January 6, 2025
The newest bird of the New Year slips from the bare chokecherry to the fountain. After all the juncos and jays, towhees and titmice, a single, gorgeous cedar waxwing pays a visit. It must be the ripening pyracantha berries in the front yard, a favorite of the thrushes and mockingbirds and, now, the waxwings. At least in some years. Many winters, I don’t always find these silky northern nomadic birds with the Zorro mask and stylish pompadour.
Only one cedar waxwing in 2023. Nothing in 2024.
I’m reading Amy Tan’s wonderful, illustrated book about watching birds in her Bay Area yard: The Backyard Bird Chronicles. With exquisite color pencil drawings, she journals about the antics of scrub jays and juncos and chickadees at her seed feeders.
But her book isn’t all passive birdwatching in her PJs—okay, maybe no PJs...
She writes about how hanging a fake crow upside down at her patio to dissuade the corvid invaders from taking over her yard became a crime scene, a “murder of crow.” How night-stalking rats come to her feeders after dark despite her rat-trap creations and chile-pepper-dusted suet. How wielding her garden hose makes the rogue neighborhood cats think twice before leaving lovely bouquets of loose feathers on her lawn.
Yes, birdwatchers have their obsessions.
Cats being one of them.
I, too, have cats.
After my morning birdwatch with the waxwing, I hike up the south drainage past the hand-dug well and its solar pump to a pair of wildlife cameras mounted to two juniper trees so the cameras face each other. I pull the memory cards and change the batteries. I now have a record of everything that moved along the trail over the past months—though the dates are wrong because I forgot to reset the time stamp last time.
Back home, I scroll through hundreds of images. Cottontail rabbits with glowing eyes in the darkness. Ringtails and hooded skunks on patrol, snouts to the ground. Scrub jays and turkeys. Hunting gray foxes and single-filing javelina and white-tailed deer on parade. Lots of deer.
And cats.
A bobcat pauses on the trail in front of Camera #2 where it has picked up the scent of something…
Perhaps this mountain lion? Which also is on a scent mark at the same location…
I rarely see more than one mountain lion. This looks like a female followed by a subadult offspring at Camera #1. We do have plenty of birds (turkeys) and deer.
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I love watching Cedar Waxwings, especially in winter where an entire flock tend to descend in sync , landing on snow covered branches of Crab Apple trees still heavy with shriveled berries. Then taking to the air all at once ,with any kind of disturbance, only to land again. It really is quite beautiful. Great videos! As you are well aware by now, I live in VT. We have Canadian Lynx and Bobcats making a comeback, but , my husband and I saw a Mountain Lion three times in our well wooded neighborhood, one month ago. No camera in hand , we were walking up our steep paved road , I was about 30ft ahead of my husband and we both saw movement . Looking in the direction, I was only 20ft away when I saw the cat hesitate on the grassy side of the road, stared at me a moment, then casually sprang across ,stopped again and strolled into an open field .We both were able to get a perfect viewing. Not quite full grown, that long tail, the low arc of its back as it sprang. I saw it again in our back yard casually strolling through our woods and across the grass. Another time the same, tried to stealthy sneak out the door with phone in hand , but I missed it. ( Maybe should have had my PJs on). I researched and explored all the images and written details I could find and there is no other explanation. Most wildlife experts here, have not acknowledged their existence in this state. My husband and I agree that we have no intentions to notify state VT Fish and Game Experts. One,is to let this animal be contently in the wild. The other, we would have cars lined up daily on the road to catch a glimpse and then announce to the rest of the state and beyond.
And quickly, I was driving long distance by myself, on a day in May when luck would have it, Amy Tan was being interviewed on VPR ( broadcasted on Vermont Public Radio for NPR.) I thought I would send it along. I’m sure if she realized bird watching in PJ’s only enhances the experience, then she might indulge. If she ever shows up on Substack, I will be the first to send her your way.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/amy-tan-turns-her-literary-gaze-on-the-world-of-birds-in-the-backyard-bird-chronicles
Thanks for keeping it going, Ken. I enjoy and value your posts. Amy’s new book was a Christmas present from one of my own children and I am also looking forward to reading that soon…
Best wishes for a peaceful and fulfilling year in 2025.
Benny