The Day to Day Life of a Birder

What a crazy time we live in!  As covid winds down, a war in Ukraine begins and causes more chaos. And sadly the loss of life. Thank goodness we have birds to escape reality for a few hours.  Thank goodness for nature and friends. 

As gas prices surge, focused birding must happen to save on the pocketbook.  I see myself in an electrical car in the near future.  But for now, birding will be local and close to home.  There is no wandering to wander right now except for close to home. It's a good time to do county birding!

I have several treks scheduled for this year.  In fact, next week I'll be in Florida for spring break on a focused birding track (to minimize the gas). And in Arizona, if a rare bird shows up at a distant location, there has to be more reasons besides the bird to go visit. In fact, I wasn't going to chase the rare Golden-winged Warbler up in Phoenix.  But my friend's hubby needed a ride up to Phoenix to fly out and Gordon offered me his place to stay overnight. And while we didn't expect to see the warbler, we were rewarded with a few moments of good views. While I was up there, we visited with Khanh and took him to nearby hotspots to look for birds. In short, I made a couple days out of the trek instead of the typical "one-and-done" that we'd usually do while chasing a rare bird.

Overall, it has been an okay winter for rare birds but nothing new for me beyond the Scarlet Tanager and Rusty Blackbird in Pima County last year. So keeping it close to home, I had fun looking for a Louisiana Waterthrush in Madera Canyon.  At a pyracantha bush there, birds which included many thrushes, also hosted a rare Rufous-backed Robin.  I sat on a rock and watched all the bird activity.  

Because there is no pressure to chase birds, I've been enjoying my weekend mornings having coffee and watching my bird feeders.  I've also worked on house projects which has become a thing now.  There I've done some electrical work and crown moulding for our ceilings.  

Still.  It's hard to pass a good bird when they are perched like this beautiful Turkey Vulture below. When the opportunity arises.....

Generally these winter months in Arizona are busy with tourists, visiting birders and family. Sometimes while I'm trying to see a bird, it's difficult not to look at the visitors passing by. In other news, I had a lecture via zoom this past week with the Bangor Bird Group in Wales.  My lecture was on Birding Panama.  It's always fun to see kind faces and share our birding passions. 

I find that February through May are often a blur here. Tucson is a beautiful place and we are fortunate to live here and call this city our home. There is always something going on! Now look carefully at the picture below. Can you find the Louisiana Waterthrush?

I went three times for this bird and hiked up and down the canyon.  On the day I watched the pyracantha bush, I heard the bird spurting loud single chips down the creek. I waited until the waterthrush stopped for a bounce along the creek.  It was skittish and very much camouflaged against the leaves.  

As I wrap up on covid projects, I get myself into yet another!  Once the progress starts, it's hard to stop. 

Before summer arrives, I wanted to put a newer design ceiling fan up in our dining room area.  I had to pull out the old chandelier and I'm currently putting in stone tile around that fan.  Our dining room gets really hot in the summer.  With this fan, it'll keep the air moving!

 Meanwhile, the catio is a popular room.  If it's cold, they keep warm together.  If it's hot, they bask in the sun.  Either way, they'd be out there 24/7 if they could.  

And on a casual walk at Sweetwater, a pair of Cinnamon Teal float right by a bunch of birders reminding us all that life is good. The attack on Ukraine reminds us all about how lucky we are to be able to do these simple pleasures.