January 22, 2022 My neighbor Sara asks me where all the canyon wrens have gone. “I haven’t heard one in a year,” she says. Still only 39 species for the Big Yard this year. I miss the Gila woodpecker’s squeaky laughs from the sun-blazed oaks. The self-confident tweet-tweeting of the curve-billed thrashers with their soul-penetrating yellow eyes. The magical and haunting waterfall trill of the canyon wren, the first bird that sang to me when the wife and I moved into this rock-walled cottage in the woods a dozen years ago.
A beautiful poignant reverie, Ken. We long for warmth and earlier sunlight to return. The birds do as well. Mourning doves are already on their nests at my home in Oro Valley, and CBTs are calling late into the evenings, even in the dark. Life is stirring.
Where are the bluebirds this year? None around the mistletoe laden mesqutes along Sibyl Road, only a couple of Westerns at Curtiss Flats. Zero Mountains. Rufous-crowned Sparrows, seen almost daily throughout the year are missing from our yard. Only a single Black-chinned Sparrow all year......the list goes on.
Hope so too. Not sure where I'm going to plant so many -- husband doesn't like me to water!!
A beautiful poignant reverie, Ken. We long for warmth and earlier sunlight to return. The birds do as well. Mourning doves are already on their nests at my home in Oro Valley, and CBTs are calling late into the evenings, even in the dark. Life is stirring.
Where are the bluebirds this year? None around the mistletoe laden mesqutes along Sibyl Road, only a couple of Westerns at Curtiss Flats. Zero Mountains. Rufous-crowned Sparrows, seen almost daily throughout the year are missing from our yard. Only a single Black-chinned Sparrow all year......the list goes on.