The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

Banning Creek with actual water.

February 26, 2023

Another day of snow and rain.  Gusting wind knocks branches from the trees and pins dozens of pine siskins and Cassin’s finches to the ground.  I’ve just returned from a week in Flagstaff where record snow (73 inches for January and February) forced me onto the roof of my youngest daughter’s home with a shovel and axe.  The son-in-law’s idea, not mine.  As were the Yaktrax cleats for my boots.  As a precaution against broken legs.

In Bisbee, La Nina has played coyote trickster, delivering nearly five inches of moisture since the beginning of the year, the wettest start in 14 years.  Banning creek churns among slick, white boulders, a sound that bends my mind toward trout and my fireside fly-tying tools.

Time to build a fire.

The month slides to its end with 43 species of birds for the Big Yard.  The highlight has been the early young male rufous hummingbird that has remained on the rare bird alert as the only rufous hummingbird reported in Arizona.  While I shoveled snow in Flagstaff, a birder messaged me asking to “swing by” and watch my feeders hoping to add the bird to his county list.  I told him I was out of town, but he was welcome to try and that my wife may or may not be home.  He arrived within a half hour and twenty minutes later messaged me with “Yeehaw” and a backyard photo of the rufous at the bedroom window feeder.

When I texted the wife about it, she replied, “What birder?”

Mr. Rufous. February’s rare delight.

Other February highlights of some less-than-rare birds:

Lincoln’s Sparrow. A common but stealthy winter visitor to the yard’s thickets and brambles.

Another aficionado of brushy hillsides and woodlands, the diminutive Bushtit (female).

The White-crowned Sparrow, a winter visitor from Alaska tundra country.

Occasionally, among all the Pine Siskins and Lesser Goldfinches, an uncommon Lawrence’s Goldfinch makes an appearance.

This has been the winter of the White-breasted Nuthatch and the Cassin’s Finch (below).

Always a nice surprise, both the Hutton’s Vireo and Hammond’s Flycatcher (below) are rare in winter.

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