The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

A male Hermit Warbler, fresh from the forests of Mexico and Central America, makes its way to the Pacific Northwest right through the Big Yard.

April 15, 2024

The wind rattles the metal roof and shakes the windows.  It strips leaves from the oaks and colors the air with the yellow and gold of fall.  The hillsides shimmer like harvest time, but it’s spring in the Mule Mountains and everywhere is the smell of dust and pollen.

And with the wind comes the exchange of birds.  The sparrows of winter head north.  Most—like the Lincoln’s and Brewer’s and song sparrows—are already in Alaska and Canada.  The half-dozen white-crowns will follow soon, as will the lingering pair of juncos with the dark eyes.

But now, the drab birds give way to the vibrant.  April has graced the yard with 71 species so far, including ten species of hummingbirds, tiny jewels with wings.  With yesterday’s hermit warbler, six kinds of warblers—with more to come—needle the flower-infested apple and chokecherry trees.  A pair of hooded orioles has finally joined the “yucca” and Bullock’s orioles, the two materializing on the same day with the season’s first black-headed grosbeak.

Eye candy, each one.

I’ve marked my calendar for the return of last summer’s sweetest prizes.  The flame-colored tanager and yellow grosbeak.

But I’m always game for something else unexpected.

One of six warblers to visit the yard so far (out of 18 documented), an Orange-crowned Warbler migrates from Mexico to breeding grounds in Alaska.

The Wilson’s Warbler, which winters in Mexico and Panama and breeds in Alaska, is one of the first to show in the yard in spring.

Lucy’s Warbler, a short-range migrant “desert warbler,” is named for the naturalist and scientist Lucy Hunter Baird, daughter of ornithologist Spencer Fullerton Baird, the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Black-throated Gray Warbler, like many warblers, travels between Mexico and the Pacific Northwest each spring and fall.

Both, the Bullock’s Oriole and Hooded Oriole (below) winter in coastal Mexico before migrating to the western US in spring.

After wintering in Mexico, dozens of Black-headed Grosbeaks will spend the summer in the Big Yard.

The crowned jewel of summer migrants, the Lucifer Hummingbird.

Thanks for subscribing! More to come! Up next—the flycatchers of summer! The first Hammond’s Flycatcher of the year arrived this morning…