The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

February 28, 2025

Fire weather. Yesterday, the sky looked apocalyptic—dark and gray-green and opaque. Xanadu. The mountainsides turned to zinc as the latest Pacific cold front brought only dust. The drought continues. Our well no longer pumps water. The oaks drop umber leaves and go skeletal with a meager three hundredths of an inch of rain since last October: the driest I’ve ever seen it in the canyon.

This morning the wind rises again, lifting a burden that smells like ash. This is how the world ends, I think, although, as my youngest daughter says, the world is always ending...somewhere.

My wildfire thoughts on a blustery day watching birds.

Then, a welcomed distraction. Something new. A single black-throated sparrow comes to the fountain to drink. The dapper bird with the black clergy bib and a fondness for mesquite grasslands is the southwest desert’s most widespread sparrow. But not here. They’ve visited the yard only half a dozen times in more than a decade.

This has been the winter for sparrows.

This week, hummingbird numbers are up with the arrival of several rufous and the first broad-tailed hummingbird. I need to buy more sugar...lots more sugar. But, on this last day of February, the black-throated sparrow tops off the month at 51 species.

Some highlights:

Earliest of the migrants, the first Rufous Hummingbird of the season.

A male Broad-tailed Hummingbird, usually the next in line at spring migration.

An early Violet-crowned Hummingbird.

The one Vesper Sparrow this winter.

This White-throated Sparrow, a rarity in our parts, spent the winter with us.

And, once again, we survived our annual backpack in the Grand Canyon. Two nights camping at Havasupai Gardens serenaded by western screech-owls and northern pygmy owls overhead in the cottonwoods. Glorious.

Youngest Daughter and Son-in-law with the pajama-wearing birdwatcher.

My camp under the cottonwoods at Havasupai Gardens.

Our trail through the Hermit Formation. Wannabe geology nerds, we practiced the mnemonic “Know The Canyon History, Study Rocks Made By Time” as we traversed the canyon’s layers: From the top, Kaibab Formation, Toroweap Formation, Coconino Sandstone, Hermit Formation, Supai Group, Redwall Limestone, Muav Limestone, Bright Angel Shale, Tapeats Sandstone. Add “Very Slowly” and you include Visnu Schist, the basement layer of the Grand Canyon.

Even with 27-degree mornings and icy trails, don’t forget to hydrate!

As we enter March, the son-in-law arrives with supplies and tools and construction starts on the off-grid writing shed. Watch for updates on our progress. There will be birds and bruises.

Thanks for reading and supporting the Big Yard! More to come!