The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

Along with the Green-tailed Towhees, Rufous-crowned Sparrows, and Red-breasted Nuthatches, among others, the Canyon Wren has been missing from the yard for nine months.

June 1, 2022 

 The month of May brought the Big Yard 81 species of birds, a bit of a dip from April as expected as the migration wanes, but a surprising 16 birds shy of May 2021.  Are two years of La Nina drought taking a toll?  I haven’t heard the magical liquid trill of a canyon wren since last September.

Less than an inch of rain in five months.  The oaks dropped leaf and remained that way, turning the canyon gray and skeletal.  Shrubs of manzanita look pale and thin among the bleached branches of their dead neighbors, lost in the drought of 2012.  I fear this one will be worse.  The well is pumping less than 50 gallons a day, and we’ve already had our first tanker of water delivered.  Earliest on record.

Today, I’m replacing the leaky pressure tank of the rainwater harvesting system so we can pump water into the house and fill toilets when the inevitable comes.

Six weeks till the monsoon, so the shrill-voiced cicadas predict.  We will need creek flow.

I fill the fountain with a little more rainwater, thinking about the word my Scots-Irish forebears used to express their deep-seated sense of belonging to the place of their roots: Cianalas. I’m not feeling it. Then, as if on cue, the first violet-crowned hummingbird of the season alights on a branch in front of me.  Species #110 for the year and the eleventh hummingbird of the season.

The bird of the monsoon.

Some highlights from the month:

Western Wood-pewee on 5/29. Unlike other flycatchers, the species is an “acceptor” of cowbird eggs.

5/26 A male Blue Grosbeak, newly arrived from Central America and searching for a mate.

A male Red-breasted Grosbeak, also from Central America, visited the yard for one day on 5/15.

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