The Big Yard: Notes from a Pajama Birdwatcher

March 20, 2022

The planet leans into the equinox of spring and a tidal surge of birds—54 species! —floods the Big Yard.  This week, five different hummingbirds crowd the feeders, the male broadbills bullying even the feisty rufous hummers.  The first black-throated gray warbler, absent since last November when they left for wintering grounds in central Mexico, joins a Townsend’s in the leaf-hankering apple tree.

Turkey vultures drift over the “Continental Divide” (yes, New Mexico, we even have a monument that says so) in their practiced Vs and the citizens of Bisbee celebrate the annual return of the carrion eaters by donning black wings and red headdresses and dodging traffic in the streets.

 

Lawrence’s goldfinches, an uncommon beauty of the West that spends summers in coastal southern California and winters in Arizona, finally decide to visit the yard and mix with the regular and abundant lesser goldfinches weighing down the thistle feeder.  This week is only their third appearance here (topping off the yard at species #166), and the first time I manage photos.

This is the female Lawrence’s Goldfinch—I’m still trying to photograph the male.

A single black phoebe ventures up from the San Pedro River where I see them year-round.  In the yard, the dapper flycatchers are a treat, showing up only a handful of times and only since I constructed the trickle fountain at the start of the Pandemic.

A Cassin’s vireo pauses for a drink at the Covid fountain as it makes its way from central-southern Mexico to breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest. 

And finally, today’s feathered thrill, the bird of the vernal equinox, whose appearance here from Central America always says “spring:” the insect-eating, fire-bellied, painted redstart.

The Scott’s Orioles have also surged in numbers. This one, so intent on chasing off the other males for the affections of a newly arrived female, bumped into the window this morning. He was fine once the stars cleared.

Thanks for supporting the Big Yard!