The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

Backwoods cousin of the feral pigeon, a Band-tailed Pigeon comes to the fountain for a cool drink on a hot morning.

October 9, 2024

The pleasantly cool morning vanishes as soon as the sun rises.  Another day pushes into the high 80s for us, and higher for others across the Southwest.  Today, Tucson will tie a record set in 2020 for the most triple-digit days in one year: 108.  One hundred and eight days of 100+ degree temperatures in 2024.  Tomorrow it will break that record.

But it’s a dry heat.  Despite being October!

The birds are feeling it.  Dozens come to the fountain to drink and bathe.  Whole flocks of chipping sparrows and white-crowns, mixing with a smattering of Brewer’s sparrows, several kinds of juncos, towhees, and the rare black-chinned sparrow.  When a single vesper sparrow stands up above the pool, I have to check my notes.  The last time I saw a vesper sparrow in the yard was April 2021.  Which was the first time.

The heat brings in rarities for the yard, like this Vesper Sparrow.

By 8 AM I’m sweating in the shade and ready to quit.  Then my eye catches a large gray bird as it lands in a juniper.  Band-tailed pigeon!  First of the year.  In fact, it’s been nearly a year since the last one visited the yard, although I often hear their owl-like hoots and coos where I camp each summer on the East Fork of the Black River.

The native pigeon, this one a juvenile without its white collar, slowly brushes through the chokecherry on its way to the pond where it finally plunges a yellow bill into the trickling seep.  Its relief is nearly audible.

Band-tailed pigeons range across the western US, Mexico and South America, from timberline to low deserts, large flocks flying dozens of miles in search of acorns and berries and seeds.  The US hosts two separate breeding populations, one here in the Southwest and another on the West Coast—where I’ll be traveling next week for a writing retreat in an attempt to turn these random, odd posts about the Big Yard into a book...

Stay tuned.  I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Cool refreshment. The fountain, which I added to the yard several years ago, was a game-changer.

One year, I counted 14 Band-tailed Pigeons in one flock.

An adult Band-tailed Pigeon displays an impressive collar.

Thanks for sharing the Big Yard with me. More to come in a couple weeks!