The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

October 25, 2023

Yesterday’s half inch of rain and hail dampens the morning birds.  Two dark-eyed juncos make a halfhearted attempt at fountain play, skittering across the rocks to the pool and shaking droplets from their feathers.  The towhees and sparrows and nuthatches stick to the trees, preferring the 43-degree shadows to sunlight.  My favorite trio of hermit thrushes are no-shows.

Then, one of those ordinary/extraordinary moments.  A male pyrrhuloxia ornaments the peach tree—all crimson-faced and yellow-beaked.  I haven’t seen the desert cardinal in six months, and then only a few times.  The bird was absent all of 2022. 

The pyrrhuloxia tops October at 88 species, which will be my total count for the month, since tomorrow I leave for Flagstaff and then Grand Forks, North Dakota, with the son-in-law for two weeks.  Something about a major plumbing project at his mother’s home I volunteered to help with years ago.  Probably, rashly, thinking summertime and birds.  And trout fishing.

Yesterday’s hailstorm, a rataplan of marble-sized chunks of ice that shocked the air and tore leaves from the trees, should stand as a warning.  North Dakota.  As the season’s first winter storm shoulders into the Midwest.  My youngest daughter, who married the North Dakota boy, says to bring lots of clothes—all the clothes I own.  Not just my flannel PJs.

But will there be birds?  I don’t know.  I’ve listed birds I’ve seen and identified for 1306 continuous days, mostly in the Big Yard but also while traveling, like rock pigeons and house sparrows in a motel parking lot at El Centro or Santa Nella, California. Three and a half years of daily sightings since the beginning of the Pandemic.

Soon, there may be a day without birds. 

It will be gone in a day, but half an inch of rain raises the creek where it cuts through the new property.

October rain is a blessing, but we’re still 10 inches shy of normal for the year. Today, we trucked in water while the creek flowed down the mountain.

October highlight: After an absence of two years, a Black-chinned Sparrow visits the yard.

Another October highlight: a late Nashville Warbler on 10-21 finds its way from the yard to the rare bird report.

Thanks for subscribing! See you in North Dakota (if I see any birds).