The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

April 26, 2022

I rise at 5 am to the smell of smoke.  A gray scarf of haze skirts the canyon walls as the wind, yet again, frays my nerves.  Six alert messages on my phone.  I write this as red and white C-130 Hercules slurry bombers churn the sky where the Locklin Fire burns 150 acres near Juniper Flats only a couple miles away.  Upwind.  Bisbee’s third fire in a week.

But the day carries with it one bright spot.  After mentioning in my last post that I haven’t seen a Grace’s warbler since October 2020, one materializes at the fountain this morning.  Perhaps it’s the fire.  Or perhaps the quantum vortex is powering up.  Speak the name and they will appear.

Even if their wintering range includes Nicaragua.   

The warbler is named for Grace Darling Coues, sister of the US Army surgeon and naturalist Elliott Coues, who requested the honor for her after discovering and collecting the bird in 1864. Our little white-tailed deer is named for big brother Coues.

Grace’s favors the evergreen forests of our sky islands where it nests high in ponderosa and Apache pine and only rarely forages among the oaks of lower Madrean woodlands like those in the Mule Mountains.  In fact, this is only the second eBird record for Grace’s warbler in the Mule Mountains (both mine), the warbler scoring #93 for the Big Yard in April.