The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

My morning shot of caffeine.

July 25, 2023

This morning, warbler movement in the chokecherry catches my attention.  The tiny bird flits and darts and swivels as I reach for the camera.  For long moments the heavy green leaves screen it from view but the dancing shadows chasing insects among the foliage still say “warbler.”  I haven’t seen any warblers since the spring migration.

When the bird finally comes to the fountain to drink and bathe, I recognize the crisp black mask against the white cheek and eyebrows.  A black-throated gray warbler, a common songbird that nests in oak-pine woodland across Arizona in summer—although one hasn’t visited the Big Yard in months.

For me, the bird is a sign of what’s to come.  The warblers of fall.

Always inquisitive, a Black-throated Gray Warbler rises out of the chokecherry tree for a looksee.

Here’s another sign we’re shifting away from the oppressive daytime heat of the summer doldrums into something more typically “monsoon.”  Yesterday, as I sat in the same place, sipping the same dark brew of liquid stimulant, my cell phone rang.  My neighbor, Lucifer’s Mistress, discovered a blacktail on her back porch doorstep and wanted to know if I wouldn’t mind removing it.  Black-tailed gnatcatcher? I thought.  Prairie dog?  Jackrabbit?

“It’s huge,” she explained.  “Twelve rattles and very agitated.  I could call animal control if you’d rather.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said.  “Do you have a bucket with a lid?”

This was the second black-tailed rattlesnake in three days, and both, normally nighttime hunters of rodents and rabbits, were active in daylight.  I decided to introduce this one to the new property where it might empty its impressive venom sacs and potent hemorrhagic toxins into the overpopulation of rats and mice chewing holes in my work gloves and tarps.

Nature is all about balance. But she sometimes needs a little push.

I carry a “snake stick” (a rod with a simple hook) in my car for such occasions.

A successful relocation.

More signs that change is coming. Although very common all year in southeast Arizona, Black Phoebes (above) and Lark Sparrows (below) are rare for the yard, only appearing in late summer when the monsoons are well underway.

This Lark Sparrow came in at species #63 for July.

Thanks for subscribing! Let’s hope the warblers in August outnumber the rattlesnakes! More to come!