The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

Low tide, Dana Point, California.

November 7, 2022

According to a 2015 study in the Journal of Research in Personality, introverts prefer the mountains to the beach, which extroverts favor.  I’m sure this is why I live at 5600 feet in the Mule Mountains.  But even when I do travel to the coast, I still seek out solitude.  And after the past month of hospitals and doctors, sterile corridors and night watches, caregivers and home nurses and hospice arrangements for my dear friend Dick Shelton, I need to be alone.  Like the solitary sandpiper.  Or any sandpiper, for that matter.

This morning before dawn.  Misty rain beading my skin. Nose dripping for the chill. Watching birds at San Juan Creek estuary with no one in sight.

A pair of Spotted Sandpipers face off over who gets the early polychaete worm.

Least Sandpiper (above and below).

Willet

Snowy Egret

Eared Grebes

This morning’s surprise, a flock of Scaly-breasted Munia feeds in the sedges. The last time I saw these naturalized finches from Asia was in 2010 when they were called Nutmeg Mannikins.

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